A Bug in the Game
by Harper Potts
Summary: The tale of Taylor Hebert, but not as you know her from Worm. This Taylor made different choices as to what kind of hero she wanted to be, and the story changed. Then she discovered James Barron trapped in her locker, and the story changed again. Companion Story to Co-Op Mode. Worm AU Gamer pseudo-SI.
1. Noob 1-1

**A Bug in the Game** **  
Worm + Gamer OC  
A companion story to Co-Op Mode** (11552343)

So what do I mean by companion story?

I originally signed up to be a beta for Co-Op Mode. When Faria Lyton asked me to write a Taylor interlude, I was glad to do so. From there I started writing additional interludes from Taylor's perspective. Initially I intended them as a temporary thing, but after some discussion with FL, I've decided to continue them going forward. While I'll still be giving input to FL, I'll be following his plot. James is still the protagonist of Co-Op Mode. Taylor will be the protagonist for A Bug in the Game. These stories will be substantially the same except for a variation in the order the chapters are presented. For the first two arcs there is a large amount of overlap in the content with the same events just being seen from two different points of view. Since I agreed to make my role more permanent, we've also decided that we will try to separate our separate segments more, leaping frogging through the story with first one story, then the other advancing the storyline. Hopefully that will work out.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction and is not for profit. Worm belongs to Wildbow. The Gamer belongs to Sung San-Young. Faria Lyton's work is used with permission and will be credited when used. Cover art of Lady Bug is property of Necoc Yaotl and used with permission. Large kudos to Faria Lyton for originating Co-Op Mode, for being willing to share it with me, and for continuing to drive the plot. Thanks to Necoc Yaotl for her awesome art skills.

* * *

 **Noob 1.1**

Seventh period art, class and the school day ended in fifteen minutes. My first day back after my extended absence had been relatively quiet. Just whispers and comments about being crazy and locked up. Those just seemed to be normal school rumors. Emma, Sophia, and Madison, my terrible trio of tormentors, had remained quiet. However, that fit their pattern. After every escalation in their attacks, they backed off for a while. I was cautiously optimistic that there wasn't an ambush planned on my way out. Fortunately, I was prepared. I already had my books from my locker. I'd just duck out a side door and I was done for the day.

Despite missing a few weeks I was already caught up in art, so I had a little bit of free time. I turned to my notebook to resume working on a good cape name. I had brainstormed quite a few, but it was surprisingly difficult to come up with a bug name that didn't suck or make me sound like a villain: Creep, Creeper, Creepie-Crawlie, Swarm – all villainous; Ladybug – too cute; Firefly, Lightningbug – implied powers that I didn't have; Wasp, Spidergirl, Yellowjacket, Mantis – all Earth aleph fictional superheroes, not bad, but species specific; Queen Bee – not really, it reminded me of Emma; Queenie – sounds like a puppy; Bug Girl – juvenile; Buzz – the sound insects make, sounded male; Skitter – how insects move, vaguely villainous but possible; Insecta – no, just no; Phalanx, Armada – referring to commanding an army of bugs, maybe, but I bet they're taken. I needed something that sounded truly heroic. People don't like bugs in general, and swarms of bugs looked scary. I needed something to offset that.

I frowned at my extensive list of rejects. None of these really worked… my eyes landed on ladybug. From a fluke of my writing there was a bit of a gap between the y and the b. Hmm, what about two words, Lady Bug. That just might work. Lady Bug, I tried it on for size. Lady had good connotations, not just a woman or a girl, the female equivalent to a knight. It just sounded heroic. It wasn't by chance that a lot of superheroines were named lady something. Lady Photon was a Brockton Bay example. It also sounded mature which was a bonus. Taken together they became ladybug, which also worked. Ladybugs were cute and non-threatening. Even little girls who would run screaming from something as harmless as a grasshopper liked ladybugs. It took the scary out of my powers. Separate it out as Lady Bug, I could play to a regal theme, queen of the swarm. I would be using swarms of bugs to attack, and that was scary no way around it, but I'd be a female knight passing judgment on evildoers. I could use ladybugs and butterflies for public appearances such as talking to the press and the stay-off-drugs talks at schools. At night I could switch to moths and fireflies. Only bring out the bad bugs for combat. Yes, it could work. Lady Bug wasn't a villain. She wasn't cute. She was a kick-ass hero.

Costume! I needed to scrap all my ideas and start afresh. No way in hell I was going with a big round armored suit that was red with black dots. I needed something regal. Would a crown be too pretentious? Or would it have bad connotations reminding people that I was a master? Hmm, I could try some sketches both ways. I could play up on the lady/knight with my armor. Perhaps some kind of plate that crossed insect armor and knight armor? I've seen that before in fantasy sketches, very faerie, very cool. It could be done, but it would have to be silk based and just look metal. I wasn't a brute. Real plate mail would wear me down, but I'd already been playing with the idea of using chitin to reinforce my silk.

The rough sketch I'd made didn't look anything like what I wanted. I was half-decent at art, but I wasn't skilled enough to pull off quick sketches. It took me a lot of redrawing to get something half-way decent. So, was I really up to building my own costume? My spiders didn't make that much silk. It might take me weeks or even months. If I wanted to be Lady Bug, then I had to look regal. I was pretty sure I could pull off a dark black silk suit with bug eyes, armor plates and maybe some mandibles, but maybe I should involve a professional. Fortunately there was professional fashion designer in Brockton Bay, Parian.

That rough idea quickly blossomed into a plan. I could trade spider silk cloth and thread for her expert help in costume design. It turned out to be surprisingly easy to track down Parian. She was openly registered as a rogue. Brockton Bay University flaunted that she was enrolled in their fashion design program. While they kept her civilian id secret, they posted pictures of her studio and gave out contact information. Even though she was still a student, she already did costume work. There was no catalog of prices. Apparently each Parian design was a one-of-a-kind original. She also had a few testimonials from capes and other celebrities. Based on her own costume, a well-done Victorian era doll look, she did good work.

Getting together enough silk to offer in trade turned out to be much harder. I could locate spiders easily enough, but I had to individually learn to identify each species and there were only a few species that I was interested in as silk producers: black widows and golden orb spiders. Darwin's bark spiders would be better than either of them. However, they were also native to Madagascar so unless I turned villain and broke into a zoo they would have to wait.

My original plan was to go with black widow silk. Dragline black widow silk is unusually elastic, even better than kevlar. That made it perfect for absorbing impact damage: knives, fists, blunt objects and hopefully bullets. Golden orb spiderweb didn't have that same elasticity, but had an even higher tensile strength. That made it better for nets, snares and cocoons. I wasn't initially going to bother with golden orb spiders, but they earned their name because of the color of their webs, not the color of the spiders themselves. Now that my costume plans for Lady Bug called for being a knight in shiny armor, gold tinted silk armor would work with my theme better.

It wasn't easy finding golden orb spiders. They were more commonly found south of Brockton Bay, but diligent searching during my morning runs had turned up a few. They proved to be easier to work with than black widows. Black widows are very territorial. While I could easily override that with my powers, if I left them too close together and went out of range my widows would eat each other. Golden orb spiders were more willing to coexist with each other. After weeks of working collecting, breeding, and managing my spiders I was finally able to get my silk production up to where I could actually make a deal with Parian and be able to follow-through instead of offering her samples and promises.

I had already set up an account for my new identity on PHO. Lady_Bug had been available to my great surprise and I'd pounced on it. Under my Lady_Bug alias I dropped an email to Parian about being a new cape whose powers included the ability to make spider silk cloth. I then gave her some details about the properties and some links to verify. I asked for her help in designing a costume and offered to pay in spider silk. She was understandably cautious, but a few emails back and forth and we had a meet set up.

Parian chose the location and time: BBU on a Saturday night. The academic buildings lock up on the weekends, but she apparently had a key and promised to meet me in one of the fashion design labs. That worked for me. While I hadn't been a frequent visitor to BBU, I'd been there more than once with my mother. I showed up hours early and used that time to do some research on potentially useful insect species in the undergraduate library which was open twenty-four seven and within range of the art building. I was reading up on bullet ants when my bugs alerted me to a woman unlocking and entering the art building and moving to our appointed meeting room. I returned the books that I couldn't check out and went to meet her.

My costume was really lacking. Lady Bug was a lady, so I'd borrowed some of my mom's old professional clothes that dad had never thrown out. Mom had favored pastels but I found a neutral tan suit with matching skirt that suited my needs better. I even wore her heels. They were a little large on me, but I was able to pin them in place. Nothing about my outfit screamed cape until I added the hat that I'd purchased from a thrift store and customized it by attaching a golden silk veil to hang down and hide my face. I wasn't entirely happy with the look, but the whole point of this meeting was to design my costume so it really wasn't worth putting too much effort into my temporary look. I wasn't going to impress a fashion designer with my dress sense anyway. I had my own plan for making a memorable meeting.

Ladybugs had proved to be much easier than spiders to maintain. I literally had pounds of ladybugs in my basement now. Every day I'd skim off the older ones that had already mated and laid eggs and feed the old ones to my spiders. I'd dropped off a coffee can full of ladybugs to infiltrate the art building earlier and now I sent a portion of them in to distract Parian. I had them spell out my name, Lady Bug in swirling letters while others made simulated flowers and firework explosions. While they kept Parian's attention I quietly entered. "Hello Parian. I'm Lady Bug as you may have guessed. Thanks for agreeing to meet with me."

Parian spun around and laughed. "Really, I never would have guessed. It's a pleasure to meet you. Such an interesting power. Now, let's talk." She gave a wave to the corner of the room where a gigantic gorilla plushy, easily twice the size of a real gorilla, moved from alert to a sitting position.

How had I missed an 800-pound gorilla? I suppose it was because I'd had my bugs looking for people. In a room full of cloth sample a plush animal, even a huge one, did not stand out to bug senses. That was something I'd have to work on. I found it a little ominous that Parian had wanted to have such a creation close-by, but that was a little hypocritical of me considering that I had my own swarm ready to defend me. I had my ladybugs settle down and took a seat that Parian had obviously set aside for me. "So what did you think of the sketches that I sent you?"

"They were quite good at getting your core concept across. I have some sketches to show you, but before I go into those, do you have the samples?"

"Of course." To be flashy I had lady bug squadrons airlift a couple of square yards of each silk cloth as well as both threads over to her. At least I tried to do so.

Parian must have exercised her power because the cloth and threads were suddenly yanked, pulled and stretched. "Ah, I see what you mean about tensile strength and flexibility. I've got the equipment to test it later, but just pulling on it with my power I can feel how tough the fabric is for something so thin. Yes, we can certainly work some kind of deal over this. Also while that black widow silk is tougher, this golden silk is simply gorgeous."

We'd already roughed out a deal by email. She'd help me design a costume and I'd provide her with enough raw silk to make another of her own. Parian was trying to talk me into not doing the hero thing at all and just joining her as a rogue to make specialty costumes. No dollar amounts had been mentioned, and I was certainly considering it, but there was nothing to say that I couldn't do business with Parian and still be a hero.

"Anyway, for now here's the sketches. I know you stressed maneuverability, but I want you to consider a dress. If you want to sell the lady part of Lady Bug, it's the best way to go." She pulled out a tablet and showed me a rough sketch of a dress fit for a queen including a vivid red cloak over it. "You're a master. You shouldn't be doing closer quarters combat anyway."

No, I shouldn't. However, from what I had read the PRT protocol for dealing with masters was get in their face and smack them around. I couldn't count on my enemies not doing the same. "No, I can't fight in that."

"Alright." She swiped the tablet. "Next image. This is the armor without the dress."

The sketch which was mostly what I wanted, armor half-way between a medieval knight and a beetle. "Hmm, I like it, but my breastplate has breasts." Breasts that I certainly couldn't fill. "My hips aren't that wide, and you have me in heels! I'm not wearing heels into combat."

Parian sighed. "Fine, no heels, however you might want to consider a hidden heel of an inch or so in your boots, it will help hide your secret identity. The same goes for the breastplate and hips. If you don't have it, we can pad it. You want full body armor. If you want to sell that as lady anything, you need it to be exaggeratedly female. Besides I'm fairly certain a large chunk of superheroines pad their chests too. You'll be in good company."

While I was flat enough to sometimes be mistaken for a boy, I didn't pad my bras. I knew a lot of girls did, but it just felt wrong. Not to mention that Emma would certainly call me out on it to the whole school if I stuffed my bra. However, this wasn't about covering up my inadequacies. It was about projecting an image, and maybe it would help me be a little harder to identify. "I see your point. However, back to practicality, how do I hide my identity while showing my whole face like that? What happened to the visor on the helmet?"

"That's not your face. That's a mask. People react better to faces. Let me give you an example. Do you remember when Shadow Stalker was independent and wore the hockey mask?"

"Yes, I remember." As part of my getting ready I'd been researching all the capes in Brockton Bay.

"One of the changes that came with joining the Wards is she now has a mask showing a woman's face. Sure, it's a tough girl face, but it's still a face. That's more relatable. I highly recommend the same for you. It also works as a red herring, people will assume it's based on your face."

"Alright. You've sold me on that."

"Now, one more piece. The cape. It's your ladybug influence. You were very clear on not wanting a fat and round costume. This has the ladybug spot pattern and split seam. I was going to suggest tear away fastenings so it can't be used against you in combat, but after seeing that aerial lift you did, could you do this with your bugs?" Under Parian's power the golden silk square lifted up and attached to her back like a cape.

"Sure I could do that…" Suddenly I was filled with possibilities. It wouldn't be difficult at all. Even better my cape would be immediately usable as a net which would be perfect for non-lethal takedowns. I'd been worried about how to do that. I could always have my spiders spin threads on the spot, but carrying a net with me into combat sounded like an even better deal. For that matter… "I said no dress, but could you design me a fly-away skirt? Something that looks like a skirt, but is actually several panels of cloth only attached to my waist by my bugs holding them in place?"

"I could do that. The design is easy. The hard part will be teaching you how to position all the pieces in the right places."

She couldn't see me behind my golden veil, but I was smiling from ear to ear. "Parian, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."


	2. Character Creation

Character Creation 1.1 through 1.5 were authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op mode. I am reposting them here as a part of A Bug in the Game with his permission.

* * *

 **Character Creation 1.1**

I'm in a locker. It's clean, and surprisingly empty, but it's still a locker. And is it wrong that right now I'm just happy it's not MY locker? I keep A LOT of largely random crap and WAY more books than are actually required in my locker.

Instead, I'm in Taylor Hebert's locker. She hasn't stored anything in it in months. Las Tres Putas seem to break in and steal or destroy anything she leaves here. On the plus side, that's why it's empty enough for me in here. On the downside... I'm not sure how long it'll take for me to get out.

[New Quest Alert: Get Out Of The Locker]

What.

[Get out of the locker, by any means necessary.]

The.

[Time Limit: 2 hours]

Fu- Two hours? What happens in two hours?

[Reward: Freedom, 200 XP, increased relationship with ?]

I'm still not sure what's going on, but my XP whore side is all into this.

[Failure: Decreased reputation (general), incontinence, dehydration, starvation, and/or death.]

Welp. That gets my focus back to the issue at hand. A countdown appearing at the upper left edge of my vision keeps me focused.

I barely have room to move at all, but maybe if I twist just so...

[-1 HP]

Nope. Also: ow. I cannot get the leverage to kick even a little. Maybe I can elbow the lock itself.

[-2 HP]

Note to self: locks are hard. Maybe I should try something else.

Arching my back into the door while I push off the back wall does nothing but leave a lockprint in my back. Elbowing on the hinge side is equally futile, but less painful than the lock side.

Eventually, I hear voices outside my locker.

"Hey, isn't that HER locker?"

"Do you think she's in there again?"

"Can't be, I just saw her by Gladly's room. Besides, it doesn't smell enough."

[1:23:27]

I can't have lost yet, so I take a chance and call out. "Nope. It's me. James. Here's a tip: it's possible to simultaneously insult the skinheads and die drei Hündinnen enough that they'll put aside differences while they stuff you in the first locker they can open. Think I can get you to let me out or get a janitor or something?"

A pause. Really? What is there to think about? What kind of spineless-

"I don't want to get in trouble with anyone." Rapid footsteps.

Ah. It's Greg. Nevermind.

I try twisting my shoulders, and while it isn't comfortable, it isn't painful and I'm not getting damage notices.

I should probably have already mentioned, but I'm a Parahuman. Probably. I only triggered an hour or so ago. I say "or so" because I got knocked out right after Triggering while getting my ass handed to me by a few skinheads who didn't appreciate open speculation on the fallacies of their beliefs or the implications about their sexual preferences Freud, Jung, and Kinsey could extrapolate from their dress and habit. And to be fair, I probably deserved it a little when Sophia joined in. Even if she basically stood there watching after she wandered in, I did go a little overboard with what I said about her probable interests. But enough about that.

On second I'm coming to terms with the fact that "Hans" has a knife (and my mortality), the next I have a health bar and can see every hit bringing me closer to death. Still not sure why they stopped and lockered me.

So my power lets me see how close to death I am. Thinker 1, I guess. And whatever you would call the thing with the quest. Still Thinker 1, unless I can actually do something with experience.

Anyway, I'm able to get twisted into a shape where I can (barely) elbow BESIDE the lock. Now, if this locker was made of steel, or not older than me, this wouldn't do jack. But this is Winslow, the quantafiably worst funded school in Massachusetts. And that's saying a lot. In this case, it's saying our lockers are only made of tin because gallium is too expensive.

[-1 HP]

But the door dents. A little. And that's more than enough for me. I've been in here an hour, with no other progress.

[-1 HP]  
[-1 HP]  
[-1 HP]

[Due to your dillegence, your VIT has increased by 1!]

Huh. I guess my power is doing something for me? My maximum health just went from 80 to 85. Still down to 13, though. Is it worth continuing or am I just killing myself? Each hit does almost nothing, but the dent has gotten fairly deep, and I THINK the door has bent enough that I can feel some give in the lock...

As I'm considering giving up, my health ticks back up a point. Regeneration? Even a little is worth a Brute 1. This power might be worth something after all...

Keeping an eye on the quest clock and my health reveals I'm regaining one health per 7 seconds. Roughly. Maybe a hair slower. Either way, if I just wait a little... wait.

[0:09:32]

...how long was I elbowing for? Whatever, I've got 21 HP, and I really don't want to risk failing. Maybe I can try to hover around 10 HP for safety...

[0:05:19] The give is real! I push harder, letting myself drop to 5 HP.

[0:02:02] I hear voices. Are they letting me out? Did Greg grow a pair?

...must just be whoever ends my quest. Probably Gladly to complain about me 'damaging school property' like I did this on purpose.

[0:00:24] I elbow as hard as I can. The door gives!

I fall out, head taking an early lead.

If elbowing a lock takes of 2 HP, I bet cracking my head on the floor will take more than the 5 HP I have left.

 **Character Creation 1.2**

"Ow!"

Instead of cracking my head on the floor, I hit something soft and yielding. Well, bony and yielding. And by 'yielding' I mean 'collapsing under my weight'. Either way, I didn't die.

-3 HP

Barely.

[Quest Completed!]

[You have gained Freedom! and 200 XP]

What about my relationship boost?

"James, were you in MY locker?"

"I think Sophia wasn't creative enough to stuff me in a different locker," I say as I roll off of Taylor. She picks herself up and takes in the sight of the mangled locker.

"At least it's clean this time," she said with a shudder.

I'm not in any of the same classes as Taylor, but we talk occasionally. Even if she wasn't the best balance of well-informed and not-spazzy of the other cape geeks, I'd have known about her after her significantly worse stint in the locker.

Sophia, Emma, and Madison (les trois chiennes) locked Taylor in her own locker with fermented femine hygene products a few months ago. Everyone knew who did it. Most people didn't even try to help. I got my first ever broken bone (clavacle) when MADISON of all people (creepy cutesy twit) tackled me when I approached the locker despite threats to my manhood and reputation if I tried to help.

When I tried to tell Principle Blackwell what happened, Emma's dad threatened my parents with a defamation suit. My mom made me write an apology. If it weren't for the clear signs that nothing I did at that point would help, I wouldn't have done it. As it was, I used a simple misspelling code to describe my true feelings on the matter in lurid detail.

Next time I'll remember the bitch can't spell well enough to catch it.

I take a moment to come to my feet and look Taylor in the eye.

[Taylor Hebert]  
[Level 12]  
[Unaffiliated Parahuman]

I don't need... No, I don't want to know that. Using powers to discover a cape's secret identity is a huge breach of the so-called "unwritten rules". (Not only are the "unwritten rules" available in whole on at least sixteen parahuman fanboards, including ParaHumans Online, the freaking Protectorate AND PRT websites have them as well. And there's a truly intimidating video that KEEPS popping up on Youtube of the Marquis laying out the rules.) This is a ticket to getting my ticket punched if anyone finds out.

I think my face must have gone white, because Taylor started trying to comfort ME. "Hey, there's nothing in there, and I wasn't using the locker or anything. We'll just leave and no one will blame you for the locker. Unless Emma or Madison or Sophia says you did or something. But the dent is from the inside, so maybe the teachers will believe you were locked in there or-"

"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine." Did I really regenerate four health without her taking a breath? "I think I just need to..."

What do I need to do? School isn't actually even over yet. But I'm not up to going to class. Especially since I'm pretty sure I'm supposed be in gym, and that dodgeball might kill me right now. And going home is kinda pointless. No one else will be home until at least 6. I kinda want to talk to Taylor about my maybe powers, but if she is a cape she might kill me or something if she thinks I'll out her or something. Parahumans are notoriously touchy about their secret identities.

[Relationship with Taylor Hebert increased!]  
[Relationship with Taylor Hebert has advanced from 'School mates' to 'Friends']

Fuck it. If she hasn't destroyed San Guchi for what they did to her flute or for the locker before that (and that was a trigger event if I've ever heard of one) she wasn't going to kill a friend. As long as I was careful. I hope.

"I'm hungry. And I hear Fugly Bob's lost the whole 'frying veggie-patties in lard' lawsuit. I'll pay?" I swear, if I was half as well-spoken out loud as I am in my head...

Taylor's expression reinforced my poor opinion of my speaking skills. "You'd better not mean-"

"Do I look like Greg? No, I just wanted to talk with you. And eat something. Preferably lard-free. And meat-free. And Bob's is closest, and I wouldn't presume to ask someone to come along without paying."

Apparently that was good enough.

 **Character Creation 1.3**

Fugly Bob's is a terrible place to eat for a vegetarian. They technically have three or four meat-free items, but the premade salads all have bacon bits, the french fries are fried in beef grease or lard or SOMETHING, milkshakes aren't really food, and even after getting sued for exactly that reason, I had to specifically ask that they NOT soak my vegeburger in whatever bacon-dripping, beef grease, lard glop that covers everything there. Of course, what do you expect out a half-fast food, half-bar in a weathered building on the edge of Merchant's territory? The lunch rush just ended, fly-harried workers are mostly busy cleaning up leftovers, and a few rumpled men are half-consciously swaying over their beers in a corner.

Taylor's order is much easier, other than the fact they try to give us each other's orders. Twice. I swear, every time I eat out… I sometimes wonder if my sister started eating meat for the humor factor of my reaction to being offered chunks of dead animals by sexist waitstaff.

Eating the food is easy. Banging around in a locker for two hours is hungry work. We mostly just stuff our faces. Talking is tough. I'm not about to discuss powers in what is probably the most popular fast food place for Winslow students, even if the post-school rush won't show up until after school actually ends. Things are quiet for a few minutes before I try, "So... I thought you'd stopped using your locker...?"

"I was walking past and saw the door bulging. I almost thought Emma had filled it with something again but I heard banging."

I hope that didn't trigger a flashback or something. Last thing I need is her thinking about that trauma right now. "Nope. It was Sophia. And some Nazis. Maybe I should be proud. I got Nazis to work with a black chick..." I half-forced a smile. "Almost done?"

Looking over the rapidly-wilting lettuce on the last fourth of her burger, Taylor apparently decides she'd had enough. "So, I don't think you asked me here to talk about lockers..." she says leadingly.

"Actually, I did. Or more accurately, what I think happened in there." Okay, bad way to start the conversation. The glare is strong in this one. "Sorry, I know you don't want to talk about it, and it's really not something you should bring up - and I don't mean you-you, I mean a more general you, in this case me - I mean..." I stop for a second to end the babble. Deep breath. "The same thing happened to me right before I ended up in the locker. I think..." I trailed under her glare. I swear, for such a twiggy girl, Taylor has a downright intimidating stare. Even if I didn't know... think? I'm still not sure I know...

"What do you think happened?" Her quiet voice has the same knife-like intensity as her gaze.

Holy crap. I've never found an emotionless voice so scary. "I, uh, think I'm," I try not to be too obvious about glancing around the joint. Thankfully it's still mostly empty, so my absolute lack of subtlety is probably unnoticed. "A parahuman."

"Getting yourself out of a clean locker gave you powers? And what powers do you have?"

I don't know if Taylor has the best poker face ever, or if I'm just coming across as a lunatic. "No, it was the beating and threatened stabbing beforehand that did it. And I-"

"Who put you up to this?"

Wow. I thought she was scarily emotionless before. There's absolutely no inflection in her face or voice, but my every nerve is screaming that she's pissed. Even the flies around the garbage cans seem agitated.

[Due to realizing how badly you've put your foot in it, a new skill has been unlocked!]  
[Sense Danger (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.00%]  
[A natural survival instinct. It allows the user to sense when a bad thing might happen. The higher the skill level, the sooner it can sense danger.]

Well, I wish that had shown up a few minutes ago. But if it's anything like in those Earth Aleph comics... I could use that.

Right as I'm about to completely fumble out denials in terror, I realize something. I'm not actually scared. I check Taylor. Still glaring. Still way more intimidating than a skinny white girl should ever be. And yet I'm just not... well, I'm still intimidated. But it's not controlling me.

"I triggered. At first it just seemed like a really crappy Thinker power - I can tell exactly how close to dying I am. And watching that tick closer while those punks beat me-"

"Stop. You're not even good at this. You aren't injured, not even bruised. Your clothes are barely ruffled."

Huh. I knew my health bar was back up to to 85/85 after a few minutes, but hadn't really noticed that I didn't have a mark on me. "That's the second thing I noticed - I seem to regenerate. Not too fast, but maybe nine or ten minutes from almost dead to perfectly fine." It cannot be healthy for a teenager to be able to hide their emotions so thoroughly for so long. It suddenly occurs to me that she's probably got a lot of practice dealing with Sophia, Emma, and Madison.

"That's... convenient." Dripping sarcasm finally betrays some emotion. "And why are you telling me this?"

"Well, it seems I also get some information about everyone I look at. Name. Threat level. And some extra information. Like 'unaffiliated parahuman'. And... I don't know. It just seemed like... you're a friend, and neither of us has many, and all things considered I thought I could tell you."

The flies stopped buzzing.

[Relationship with Taylor Hebert decreased!]  
[Relationship with Taylor Hebert is now 'School mates']

I disguise closing the window as waving off a fly. Wonder what I did to make that drop...

"Friends?" she hissed. "You think we're friends? When did we become friends? Did you help out when I was being bullied? Did you get me out of the locker? Did you tell ANYONE who did that to me?"

"I tried-"

"Tried? What did you try?"

The flies had apparently gotten bored, and I was able to use swatting them away to take a moment to try and not put my foot in it. "Do you remember that… What about the time I… sonovacrap. I tried to let you out of the locker, but Madison tackled me. Broke my collarbone. But the weird strap set-up the doctor's had me on by the time you got back to school was probably covered by my backpack every time we bumped into each other in the hall. I've got no way of proving shit though."

Taylor just stared.

I waved off the increasingly persistent flies. I might be done eating, but it doesn't mean I okay with the flies finishing my meal in front of -

[Danger!]

"Huh?" I don't see any danger, but catch a glimpse of this one fly that's decided to just chill on my hand.

[Controlled Fly]

I stare at it.

[A skill has been created through a special act.]

[Through continuous observation, a skill to find the target's information, 'Observe', has been created.]

[Controlled Fly Lvl 1]  
[HP: 1 MP: 0]  
[A normal housefly controlled by a nearby parahuman. One fly is hardly a threat.]

I look up at Taylor's largely emotionless face. I look past her at the horde of flies swarming the trash cans. Every single one has a sign floating over it. They blend together into a huge blue blur. I still can guess what they all say.

[Controlled Fly]

"Shit."

 **Character Creation 1.4**

Fight or flight doesn't even factor in when you realize you're actively pissing off someone who can apparently control enough flies to make you flash back to watching The Ten Commandments. I barely even notice the near word-for-word recreation of a 90s Raid commercial by [Fugly Bob] himself as I desperately try to think up a way to fix this. Preferably before she kills me and/or someone calms down enough to realize the swarm of might have something to do with the girl who isn't freaking out with everyone else.

Clearly, talking is just making things worse. Show, don't tell. I grab the nearest utensil, Taylor's fork, and ram it point first into my left hand. She jolts as if to stop me, but she's too late. Thankfully, the cheap plastic doesn't break on my skin.

[-8 HP]

Unfortunately, it still hurts like a bitch. I am distinctly aware of each tine, four irregular beams of agony speared through my hand. Thank God I didn't grab the serrated knife.

Taylor's face shifts to aghast as she lunges across the table and yanks the fork out my hand, flinging it across the room. "Why did you do that? Are you okay?"

The pain starts fading immediately. I hold up my hand so she can watch it regenerate, but there's no wound. "Huh. You saw that, right?"

She grabs my inexplicably uninjured hand roughly, and for a second I think she's going to inspect it right there, but instead she stands abruptly and drags me out of the restaurant. I barely avoid banging a hip against the table, or worse. Behind us, the flies disperse as their natural instincts kick back in.

Taylor pulls me past kitschy souvenir stands, along a derelict pier, and down a half-concealed stairway. On the shaded sand under the Boardwalk, surrounded by the various bits of litter that fall through the cracks overhead, Taylor stops and draws my hand to eye level. There's no sign that anything happened. "I thought you said your regeneration was slow. This," she shakes my hand around, "Is not slow."

[HP: 81/85]

I twist my hand in her grasp, taking a moment to look at the palm. Still no mark. "...I'm confused. My power is showing me at 81 out of 85 hit points. But there's no holes…"

"Hit points? Like in an RPG?" Her tone makes it less a question, more a demand for information.

"Yeah. I think my power is a little weird. It also told me I'd gained vitality while trying to bash my way out of your locker, gave me a quest with a two hour timer to get out of there, and leaves little signs floating over people's heads. Like I said earlier, it tells me name, level, and that you're an [Unaffiliated Parahuman]."

She gives me a dirty look and releases my wrist. "And what are you going to do with that knowledge? Are you trying to out me as a cape? Push me into using my powers in public?"

"No!" I'm borderline flailing my arms in denial. "Hell no. Not a chance. I was hoping to get your help figuring out my powers..." Honestly, I really hadn't thought that far before now. I've been running on auto-pilot since I realized **I can see when someone has powers**. I'm not sure if I'm trusting Taylor because she's a friend, because she's been bullied, or just because she's got cool hair. Long hair has always caught my eye. I hope it's not the last one. I really don't like to think I'm making life-changing choices based on hair. "...and maybe team up. And not just 'cause I'm not sure how good my powers are in a fight and need backup." I'm still thinking out loud. "Like I said earlier, I assume you got your powers in the locker. That means you've had the ability to control flies for -"

Taylor interrupts me with a smirk. "Insects. All insects." She gestures at the beach a few feet closer to the ocean as a dozen or so crabs boil out of the sand and approach us… in a crustacean congo line? "Oh, and arthropods. You know, lobsters and crabs and such."

A [Controlled Wasp] floats about six inches from my face, making me go cross-eyed for a moment. "That's even scarier." I have got to get my thoughts back ahead of my mouth. "And still proves my point. Emma, Sophia, and even Madison are still alive. I like to think I'm a good guy, but the urge to go all bug-Carrie on them would be REALLY hard to resist."

Wasps, flies, and a few spiders - are those black widows? - weave between the fingers on Taylor's right hand as she lifts it to eye level, an indecipherable look on her face. "I thought about it. I really did. Somedays it got so bad it took everything I had to keep the swarms drawn by my rage in the walls. To not drown them in the bugs they linked me to. And every time, exactly one thing held me back."

It hits me. I know. I was right to trust her. "You're better than them."

"I'm going to be a hero," she agrees.

There's only one thing to do: I offer her my allegiance. I almost offer my hand in an overly-dramatic gesture, but think better of it. "I'm not sure how much I can do with my power, especially compared to yours, but I'd lo- be honored to be your sid- to fight at your side." Smooth. I should probably let her do the talking when we deal with other capes.

"I've seen the statistics for independent heroes. They're pretty grim. And as a Master, I could use a Brute as backup." She smiles in a way I haven't seen since middle school. "Tell me everything you know about your power."

 **Character Creation 1.5**

[Relationship with Taylor Hebert increased!]  
[Relationship with Taylor Hebert has advanced from 'School mates' to 'Friends']

I take a moment to figure out where to start, how to order things. I'm less likely to forget anything if I try to go chronologically. But first I have a thought I need to address. "You said 'independent heroes'. Are you not planning on joining the Wards?"

"I want to build a little rep first. Make sure my name is well-enough known that their infamous PR department can't rename me Madame Butterfly and tell me I'm not allowed to use stinging or biting insects. And I'm not sure I want the teen drama and regulations that come with being a Ward. After Winslow…" She trailed off.

I can't help but agree. "Fair enough." I've got the impression that Clockblocker and Kid Win could be fun to hang out with. Vista, too, even if she is a kid. But that might just be PHO and PR talking. Gallant and Aegis seem kinda jock-y, not that there's anything wrong with that, and if Shadow Stalker is anything like the rumors on PHO say… I'd rather deal with Madison, Sophia, and Emma.

"If I can manage it, I'd like to hold out and join the Protectorate as an adult. But I won't know until I, or maybe now we, have fought a few thugs and see how well we do on our own. We'll see how we work together, then decide." Taylor set down her backpack in the sand and pulled out a worn notebook and a pen. "So, powers. Spill."

"Well, it was immediately obvious that I could see how close I was to dying as HP." So glad Hans never got around to stabbing me. Still not sure why.

"Weak Thinker. Brute once you figure in the regeneration," Taylor muttered as she scribbled a page towards the back of the worn notebook.

"Then I got some kind of pop-up, almost like on a browser, telling me I had two hours to escape the locker. Or else." I'll leave the stated consequences vague. My eyeballs were floating by the time made it to Fugly Bob's and I got a chance to 'wash my hands'.

Taylor pauses in her note taking and looks up. "Precognition? Even if it's weirdly limited, that's a really good Thinker power." It seems she's got more to write about this than the other powers.

"I'm not really sure." Don't think I've heard of blue windows giving people text descriptions of the threat they face before. "I haven't had any other… premonitions like that one. It also promised a reward for escaping. 200 XP and a relationship increase, which was apparently for you."

"...relationship increase?" She sounds just as perturbed by the idea as I am.

"It told me we'd gone from classmates to friends. Of course, I totally blew that by being an idiot at Bob's. And it just went back up. It's kinda distracting, really." Reminds me of why I can't stand dating sims, really.

She seems to be considering the idea. "Is that why you said we're friends?" I'd say she sounds hopeful, but experience tells me it's all in my head.

"Well, that and I call almost anyone who isn't clearly my enemy a friend." Which just makes it so much sadder that I only have almost no friends at Winslow. Of course, I do pretty much automatically consider anyone who willing associates with Empire 88 or the Azn Bad Boys or the Merchants an enemy by default. Racist scum and filthy degenerates, determined to drag everyone down to their level. I pull myself back to the topic at hand before I can work myself up. "But yeah. If it weren't for how… wobbly? it is, I'd be afraid it's a Master power."

"Because you think your power made me your friend." Taylor frowned briefly, then shook her head. "I'm pretty sure that it wasn't Master, because if I was Mastered then I wouldn't have gotten angry with you. Your power laid out a set of actions. If you did them, they would result in a 'relationship increase' with me. That's a weird precog variation: do X and Y then Z will happen. Thinker, not Master."

"Yeah, that's a relief." And not just because it meant I wasn't likely to be Mastering anyone. It may be juvenile, but I don't think anyone has explicitly stated they're my friend since grade school. "That way lies bad-ness. I got another pop-up telling me I'd gotten a boost to Vitality after elbowing the door for a while. My max HP went up to 85 then. ...is that Trump, or just more Brute?"

"Brute, I think. Or maybe just more Thinker, measuring how much benefit you'll get from the exercise." Her face is back in the book, pen dancing as she scribbles notes.

I nod sharply. It makes more sense than thinking I've got some ultra-rare self-improving power like Dauntless. "Right. Well, then I noticed the regeneration then. And I kind of doubt I can actually do anything with the 200 XP I got for escaping the locker." ...I didn't apologize for that, did I? "Sorry about landing on you, by the way."

"I was wondering if you'd remember," she teases, grinning a little over her notebook.

"Sorry. Um… then I noticed a floating nametag over your head calling you [Level 12] and an [Unaffiliated Parahuman]." I really should try to get a better idea what's considered a normal level. For both humans and parahumans. Twelve is rather impressive in Dungeons and Dragons, barely a start in Final Fantasy, and jack-diddly-squat in Disgaea. With my luck, it's like Disgaea and even Mush is probably over level 200.

Taylor is suddenly aiming her pen at me. "That could be useful in separating capes from the minions. The titles might also identify gang members. Very useful, but you'll want to keep that one mostly secret. I hear no one tolerates people outing capes. Villains or heroes."

"I know! That why I started freaking out. Dragging you to Bob's was me running panicked damage control." And could have turned out so much worse. "While I was tempting fate over burgers I got a pop-up informing me I'd 'earned' a Sense Danger skill. Le-"

"Danger sense? Well that's really useful." Taylor actually looks a little jealous.

That's what I thought. "No. It isn't. So far, it just means I get a warning after I already should have known I was in trouble. That said, it did tip me off to taking a closer look at that one fly. Which showed up as a [Controlled Fly]. And then I got an Observe skill, which just told me that, yes, the fly was controlled, by a parahuman, easy to kill, and not much of a threat by itself. Then I saw a couple hundred [Controlled Flies] and kinda panicked."

"I thought you were trying to grab me or something."

"WAAYYY to scared of you to try anything." It's almost funny that she would have been worried about that. Nearly everyone in my family is allergic to bees. Odds are, she could kill me on accident. So, yes, scared. "Looks like an odd set of Thinker Powers, some minor Brute, with a possibility to improve that. And if the XP thing is anything more than my Thinker abilities just being stranger in yet another way, it'll probably only boost the Brute."

"Considering the videogame theme your powers seem to have, there might be more. And the XP thing might actually be really useful. We should probably experiment further. But probably not here." Taylor gestures upwards as a fresh shower of sand sifts down onto us, dislodged by pedestrians overhead.

I take a moment to think. Asking her to my place could be… misconstrued. And I really don't want to let my family mess this up. And they would. Inviting myself to her house would be rude, and she might be just as reluctant to involve her family. Abandoned warehouses are a huge risk, given how many aren't. Abandoned, that is. That really only leaves one option. "Ship's Graveyard? If PHO is to be trusted, it's generally viewed as one of the safe places to practice as a new cape."

She packs away the notebook and stands while absently noting, "That's probably because it's so easy to get lost there."

"Really? When did you go there?" Rumors about the place abound. Some people treat it like a haunted house and sneak in at night to prove their bravery. Some say that the truly desperate sometimes squat in the old wrecks. It's also said that markets so black even the gangs won't touch them met there occasionally to sell all things illegal and reprehensible. Slaves, drugs, weapons, and worse.

"My dad's the Head of the Dockworkers' Union." Pride creeps into Taylor's voice, followed by nostalgia. "I wandered into there a few times when he took me to work with him after grade school. It should be a good place test things for a few hours."

If she's sharing… "Sounds like way more fun than when my parents took me to work. Mom's a secretary. At Medhall. It's like spending four hours in a doctor's waiting room, but with worse magazine. And Dad's with IT for the PRT. Half the time he's running around the country making sure all their computers are running the same software, and the other half… well, when I'm eighteen I might be able to get clearance to be in the same room as his work computer." He told me he once accidentally discovered to located of a top-secret base from toilet paper requisitions in a buggy spreadsheet. It's amazing what you can pick up from the most random of data. "The Ship's Graveyard should work great. Lead the w-"

[New Quest Alert: Mom's Half-Day]  
[The Gamer's mother got off early and will notice if he's not home soon!

Fuck. Yeah, I know that. And she won't react well. I wonder how soon she'll notice.

[Time limit 30 minutes.]

If I run, I might be there in 20. Wheezing like an asthmatic 80 year-old chain smoker, but there.

[Reward: 50 XP, increased closeness with mother.]  
[Failure: Decreased reputation with mother, grounding.]

"I got a new quest, apparently my mom got home early, and will throw another hissy fit if I'm not home soon. Meet you there tomorrow? I'll tell her I got invited over to a friend's place. That should give us a few hours."

"I understand. ...you know, you should keep a journal of when it happens, and maybe more importantly, when it doesn't. For now you'd better run. If your power is warning you to get home, you'd better hurry. See you tomorrow. Is ten good?"

[New Quest Alert: Weekend Training]  
[Meet Taylor for powers practice at the Ship's Graveyard. You might want to pack a lunch!]  
[Goal time: 10 AM]  
[Reward: 200 XP, ?]  
[Failure: Decreased closeness with Taylor Hebert]

I smirk as I turn to leave. "It's a Quest."


	3. Noob 1-2

A/N: This chapter was initially written as an interlude to accompany Co-Op mode. For those of you at all familiar with Worm, there are quite commonly Interludes at the end of story arcs showing other characters. This interlude was written mostly as a recap of the events of Character Creation, just retold from Taylor's point of view. This will not continue throughout A Bug in the Game. Taylor is the protagonist of her own story and later chapters will make more effort to add new content and not simply be a repeat from a different perspective.

* * *

 **Noob 1.2**

Something was rotten in the state of Winslow. Not that rot was anything new. Since my first day at Winslow I had been bullied by my ex-friend Emma along with all of Emma's hangers on – predominantly Sophia Hess and Madison Clements. No one ever did anything about stopping it. The administration and teachers preferred to play blame-the-victim or were simply clueless. I couldn't tell which. I know my classmates weren't clueless. They either joined in the abuse or turned a blind eye to it. In a way that was worse. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing." Today the willing blindness ran especially strong. Many students actively ignored me and avoided my gaze. Something was most certainly rotten.

I had actually been looking forward to this part of Mr. Gladly's World Issues class. We were finally discussing capes. Mr. Gladly was shockingly teaching for once instead of his usual group work and discussion time. He had a passion in his voice as he lectured that he usually reserved for trying to befriend the cool kids. Yet, I couldn't make myself care. Thirty or so minutes until class ended, and then an hour for lunch. An hour was far too much time for whatever was being planned. I glanced over my shoulder to where Madison Clements sat two rows to her left and two seats back. Madison met my gaze and smirked. I lowered my eyes to my notebook and tried to ignore the ugly sour feeling in my stomach.

The hardest part was that I didn't have to take their abuse day after day. I was a parahuman and while the power to control bugs wasn't a great one, it would be so very easy to go Carrie on the school. I controlled my swarm, my swarm obeyed my every whim, but when I got emotional those emotions tended to bleed out into my swarm. For that reason I worked very hard to keep a wall up between myself and my power at school. If I lost it at school, it might be momentarily satisfying, but then I would forfeit my future. Even if I merely tormented them a bit and didn't kill them, I'd still be labeled a villain. My dreams of being a hero would be lost. Setting that aside, my powers made me stronger than them. Using my powers for revenge, even against the trio, would lower me to their level. I would not stoop to their level and bully someone just because I could. I was better than that.

On the other hand, maybe I could use my powers to avoid whatever it was they had planned for me. Thirty-three minutes left in class. Enough time to take a little peek around and still wall my power back off. I relaxed my barrier and in a blink they were all there, every creepy-crawly within blocks around answered to my will. A little bit of scouting couldn't hurt. Madison was easy. I put a fly on the bow in her hair and sent a few more bugs crawling around inside her backpack. I was still trying to work on how to interpret what my bugs were telling me, but as far as I could tell she had nothing but books and papers in her bag.

Nevermind, some of my exploring bugs discovered someone in trapped in a locker. It might even be my locker. I didn't have enough bugs to build a good enough map to tell. Judging by the way everyone wasn't looking at me, it pretty much had to be my locker. Was this a trap? How was Emma going to twist this to make it my fault? There weren't bugs in the locker until I sent a few in there. From them I could tell there was no blood and trash filling the locker, just a person, probably male because of short hair and flat chest. Still, even without the trash no one deserved to be trapped in a locker.

I thrust my hand up in the air. "Mr. Gladly?"

He looked surprised. "Yes, Taylor? Do you have something to contribute?"

"May I please go to the bathroom?"

The class laughed at my interruption. Oddly they were laughing at Mr. Gladly this time as my question seemed to have thrown him completely off his stride. Well, most of them were laughing at Gladly. Some of the boys were probably laughing merely because I said bathroom. From what I could tell half the boys in my class still thought fart jokes were the pinnacle of funny.

Mr. Gladly waved me off. "Fine. You can go, Taylor."

He was supposed to give me a hall pass, but Mr. Gladly never bothered to follow that rule. I grabbed my backpack, because I probably wouldn't be coming back. Gladly either didn't notice or didn't care. He went back to talking about the dawn of capes. Madison looked sour when I glanced at her. I took that as a good sign that I was derailing whatever was planned for me.

A brisk walk brought me quickly to the hallway with my locker. The banging sound of someone desperately trying to get out of my locker brought forth the bad memories. I could almost feel the corridor closing in on me, tight and constrictive. Nightmares clawed at the doors of my mind the same way that I'd clawed at my own flesh trying to keep the bugs off me. I could smell the stench of blood, decay and vomit. I knew it was my imagination, but that didn't mean it wasn't real. The locker changed me. Not like a forge that made me stronger. The locker broke me. I lost myself in there and it took a long time to put myself back together. I was stronger now. At least I hope I was stronger now, but sometimes late at night I wondered if I went insane in there, that I was still locked up in the psych ward and trapped in the nightmare that was Winslow. I pushed those thoughts back under the bed with my other monsters and reached for the door to unlock it. Naturally the lock chose that moment to give way and someone fell on top of me. I gave a little girly squeal as we tumbled to the floor. I'm not proud of it, but that's what happens when you spend too long huffing your own nightmare fuel.

Lying on top of me was a boy that I kinda sorta knew. "James, were you in MY locker?"

"I think Sophia wasn't creative enough to stuff me in a different locker." He rolled off me without a thank you for breaking his fall, but he seemed as embarrassed as I was and didn't get handsy.

I pushed up and got to my feet. My locker gaped open. James had done a number on it from the inside. He'd been luckier than I'd been. I'd been facing the wall. I had tried and tried to kick backwards, but it hadn't worked. I shuddered involuntarily. "At least it's clean this time."

Awkward silence. James… I knew him, but not recently. We haven't had any classes together and we didn't ride the same bus. Well, not at Winslow. We had shared classes back at Rafferty Middle School and I'd known him before then, all the way back to elementary. I couldn't honestly remember when we first met. He was just one of those classmates that had been around a long time, which is why we were on a first name basis. Despite that we were merely acquaintances. In James's favor he'd never joined in teasing or bullying me. That put him a step above most Winslow students. He was also looking a bit shaken up. I could definitely sympathize. "Hey, there's nothing in there, and I wasn't using the locker or anything. We'll just leave and no one will blame you for the locker. Unless Emma or Madison or Sophia says you did or something. But the dent is from the inside, so maybe the teachers will believe you were locked in there or-"

"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. I think I just need to..."

Fine. That was one of my favorite words these days. Whenever my father asked, the answer was always "I'm fine." I knew all about fine. James wasn't fine. I offered him my best sympathetic look while giving him a chance to pull himself together.

"I'm hungry. And I hear Fugly Bob's lost the whole 'frying veggie-patties in lard' lawsuit. I'll pay?"

What? Was he asking me out?! "You'd better not mean-"

"Do I look like Greg? No, I just wanted to talk with you. And eat something. Preferably lard-free. And meat-free. And Bob's is closest, and I wouldn't presume to ask someone to come along without paying."

I frowned, not at his words, but at myself. I was starting to act like a dog who had been kicked too often, unable to trust and snapping at everyone. James wasn't one of my bullies. He was a victim like me. If he needed someone to listen, I could do that. I forced an awkward smile onto my face. "Okay, Fugly Bob's sounds good."

A burger, fries and a milkshake later I was wondering what the hell it was that James wanted to discuss with me and why he'd picked Fugly Bob's. Sure, I enjoyed a good burger, but there were plenty of other restaurants where he could have ordered vegetarian while I had something else. Fugly Bob's was practically a temple to grilled cow and grease. The lunch crowd had faded out and while there were some employees cleaning up we were relatively private. So... what was it that he wanted? Or had he actually wanted a date? James wasn't really my type. Not that I'd dated, but I knew what I liked. I liked my beefcake with more beef. James didn't look out of shape. He had a lean but not soft look to him. Still there was a little too much nerdy/geek to him that didn't do it for me. He seemed nice enough, but I didn't want to talk about the latest videogame or if Eidolon could beat Legend in a fight.

James awkwardly broke the silence. "So... I thought you'd stopped using your locker...?"

Yeah, not going to tell him about how my bugs told me that he was in there. "I was walking past and saw the door bulging. I almost thought Emma had filled it with something again but I heard banging."

"Nope. It was Sophia. And some Nazis. Maybe I should be proud. I got Nazis to work with a black chick..." He smiled weakly at his attempted humor. "Almost done?"

The Nazi's probably recognized a kindred spirit. Just like them Sophia wanted to cleanse the weak. If she'd been born white, I'm sure she'd been in Empire Eighty-Eight. Looking at James I was obviously going to have to force the issue. "So, I don't think you asked me here to talk about lockers..."

"Actually, I did. Or more accurately, what I think happened in there. Sorry, I know you don't want to talk about it, and it's really not something you should bring up." Like an old car he stuttered, but somehow kept on going. "And I don't mean you-you, I mean a more general you, in this case me - I mean..."

My sympathy for James being stuffed in a locker faded quickly as he tried to equate our two experiences. They weren't the same. I'd suffered a fucking psychotic break when I got powers. He'd gotten up and walked away like nothing had happened. Then he tried to claim they'd given him powers?! This had to be some kind of setup. Without conscious control I'd been drawing in bugs from all around. I had more flies than anything and not many good attack bugs. I sent my swarm out searching all around. If this was a setup, if the trio or anyone else was listening in, I'd know soon.

"The same thing happened to me right before I ended up in the locker. I think... I, uh, think I'm…" He paused to look around with a dramatically like we were in some espionage thriller. "…A parahuman."

No way. "Getting yourself out of a clean locker gave you powers? And what powers do you have?"

"No, it was the beating and threatened stabbing beforehand that did it. And I-"

"Who put you up to this?" My bugs hadn't found a trio of girls or anyone else watching, but I couldn't be sure of that. While I could locate people easily enough, determining what they were doing was more of a challenge. He had me in a bad spot, but some wasps had arrived and I could call upon them along with a ton of flies. However, we were in a public place. Using them would blow my secret right open.

"I triggered. At first it just seemed like a really crappy Thinker power - I can tell exactly how close to dying I am. And watching that tick closer while those punks beat me-"

Sure he had. I'd been a victim of Sophia's too often to believe that. It was an odd relief to know that he was lying. "Stop. You're not even good at this. You aren't injured, not even bruised. Your clothes are barely ruffled."

"That's the second thing I noticed - I seem to regenerate. Not too fast, but maybe nine or ten minutes from almost dead to perfectly fine."

"That's... convenient." Too convenient. So this was some kind of trap. I'd now tagged everyone nearby and none of them matched the trio. "And why are you telling me this?"

"Well, it seems I also get some information about everyone I look at. Name. Threat level. And some extra information. Like 'unaffiliated parahuman'. And... I don't know. It just seemed like... you're a friend, and neither of us has many, and all things considered I thought I could tell you."

A friend?! There was no one else. Just James and me and he thought we were locker buddies now. Some of my flies buzzed him and I had to consciously reel them in. "Friends? You think we're friends? When did we become friends? Did you help out when I was being bullied? Did you get me out of the locker? Did you tell ANYONE who did that to me?"

"I tried-"

Bullshit. "Tried? What did you try?"

"Do you remember that… What about the time I… sonovacrap. I tried to let you out of the locker, but Madison tackled me. Broke my collarbone. But the weird strap set-up the doctor's had me on by the time you got back to school was probably covered by my backpack every time we bumped into each other in the hall. I've got no way of proving shit though."

And he just kept shoveling on the bullshit. I knew my anger was getting the best of me. Pushing it into my swarm helped keep my anger cold instead of hot, but I had to hold my bugs back from swarming James and I wasn't doing a good enough job. Several of them buzzed James, a symptom of my ill-repressed anger.

Then James made a grab for me. That was unexpected, but I still yanked my hand out of the way while sending in my wasps. Except he wasn't grabbing for my hand. He grabbed my fork and stabbed his own hand. I quickly had my wasps veer off. That had been close. I'd almost blown my secret identity. Fuck! Regenerative powers. James was trying to prove it – in public. I lunged across the table, yanked the fork out and tossed it aside. No blood. No wound. However, his face was certainly twisted up to show that it still hurt. "Are you okay?"

James held up his hand clearly showing what I'd already seen. No visible damage. "Huh. You saw that, right?"

So James was some kind of low end brute. That explained how he'd dented the hell out of my locker, but he was being stupid. Someone might notice. I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him outside. We needed somewhere to talk more privately. My bugs and some crabs informed me that there was a delivery truck in the closest alleyway, but the tide was out and there were no people under the boardwalk. Not letting go of James's hand, I pulled him past some shops, down an unmarked stairwell to the beach and under the boardwalk.

Walking gave me a chance to get myself under control although I was far from calm. What had James been thinking? No, he clearly hadn't been thinking, but that wasn't exactly new for James. Between the bullying and not having him in classes I'd forgotten what James was like. He was what my mother called a narrow intellect, brilliant in some narrow field, clueless about everything else. Narrow intellects didn't impress mom, too caught up in their own head to see the world around them. That fit James. Now to explain it to him in small words.

.oOo.

I stayed under the boardwalk when James left to hurry home warned by a quest alert. I needed some time to think things through. James wanted to team up. He considered me a friend and I liked that feeling. Thinking back I remembered something that I'd lost in the shuffle of events. James claimed he'd defended me in the locker and Madison of all people had broken his collarbone. Had that been true?

Probably, yes. Frankly, he wasn't good enough of an actor to fake his reactions. A broken bone was a whale of a story to just make up. Lots of people had to know that. There would be medical and school records. Not to mention that lots of people should have seen Madison tackle him. If I hadn't been out of school for a week and a half and totally cut off from school gossip, then I would have known about it. Just like everyone knew the trio put me in the locker. So… what did that say about me? Were there others like James out there that had tried to help me, and I'd been too busy having my personal pity party to notice?

Did it matter? The past was the past. Learn the lesson and try to do better. For now that meant accepting the hand that James offered in friendship. He wanted to team up and was willing to let me take the lead. That was good. Independent heroes didn't last long, but small teams had much better odds. Even Uber and Leet were still around. Plus he was a low-end brute. Given that I was squishy even with my armor, a brute as a partner would be a good thing. Especially if he got tougher as he gained 'experience.' That would need testing.

I scattered my swarm out and headed toward the stairs. I needed to do some research. I knew very little about the various RPG type games. I had once received a little gaming console for Christmas which I mostly ignored. I played Tetris, some virtual pet game, and another game with some guy with a sword running around trying to rescue a princess. Naturally I couldn't play a girl with a sword trying to rescue the prince. Levels and hit points reminded me of that and also that Capes and Crooks game that Greg Veder tried to get me to 'play' with him. I'd seen some games like that in used bookstores. There was one not too far off the boardwalk. If I was going to be doing testing with James on Saturday, then I'd better learn the lingo. They might even have some good ideas.


	4. Tutorial 2-1 & 2-2

Tutorial 2.1 & 2.2 were authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op mode. I am reposting them here as a part of A Bug in the Game with his permission.

* * *

 **Tutorial 2.1**

[9:54:34 AM]

"You're early," Taylor greets me, perched on a rusty oil drum. An overstuffed duffle bag rests beside on the corroded deck of the container ship she's selected for our training.

"Thanks for the directions." Only moments after I entered the Ship's Graveyard, ladybugs had formed arrows in front of me; clustered on walls, crawling along the ground, and even buzzing through the air. I'm not quite sure how she spotted me, though. Considering how much of a maze this place is, I'm glad her powers are good for scouting and guiding like that. We're fairly deep in the labyrinth of destroyed boats of all varieties. Seriously, I think I see a canoe over there. I wonder if someone left it here as a joke?

[Quest Completed!]  
[You have gained 200 XP]  
[You have unlocked the tutorial!]  
[Would you like to view the tutorial now?]  
[Yes] [No]

Taylor's voice comes from behind the floating blue window in front of me. "Are you okay? You've got a weird look on your face…"

"I just finished the quest to meet you here. 200 XP and it 'unlocked the tutorial'. It wants to know if I want to view the tutorial now?" I push it to the side, next to my level up notice from last night. "It's kinda annoying that these block my view when they pop up. At least I can just slide them to the side if I'm not ready to close 'em."

"Why would you leave them open?"

I don't want to admit how little I know about my powers, especially not to someone who has already shown me some pretty cool tricks with her power. But I'm not seeing a way around it. "Um… I'm not sure how to open screens up again. And I don't want to wait for however long it'll take to level up again to spend my points."

"So you really do get points? Do you know what this means?" Her eyes widened alarmingly. She's suddenly right in front of me, a large book in her hands now. I don't think I even saw her move. "What stats can you spend them on? What are your stats at now? Why haven't you spent them already?"

I take a half-step back, sliding my backpack to the ground while I'm at it. "Yes. No?" I pull the level up screen (level 2) just barely back into view. "4 strength, 7 agility, 12 vitality, 39 intelligence, 4 wisdom-"

Taylor's chuckle interrupts my recital. It's not the most feminine laugh, but it doesn't grate like the giggles of some of the girls at school. Madison being an infamous, ear-splittingly bad example.

I've been told enough times that I'm inattentive (a symptom of low Wisdom in Dungeons and Dragons) that I can understand it, ignore it, and soldier on. "-and 5 luck. I wanted to check with you before I spent any. Should I focus on vitality to tank for you? Strength to put attackers down hard or hold them still for you? Agility to actually be able to hit them?" Taylor is silent, so I continue, "I also practiced with [Observe] some -"

[Taylor Hebert]  
[Level 12]  
[Novice Hero]  
[A classmate of The Gamer, Taylor has revealed that she can control invertebrates with a Parahuman power.]

"What happened?" A slim hand pokes through the window and waves in front of my nose.

"I… just accidentally triggered that power that gives me a little more detail about who or whatever I'm focused on." I really hope unintentional power use isn't the cape equivalent of peeing one's pants. Or worse. "Your title has changed."

"It was [Unaffiliated Parahuman], right?" I can only assume the look on Taylor's face is much like the one I get when I'm reading notes in my head.

I nod. "And now it's [Novice Hero]. I wonder how much that even means? After all, titles in games can be purely cosmetic, or really awesome boosts to stats or skills or growth."

"No way to tell though?"

"Not that I've found yet."

"Well, maybe we should learn more about your power first. Go ahead and open the tutorial."

"...sounds weird without a computer around…" I mutter as I pull the window back into view and poke the [Yes].

Taylor doesn't let that slide. "...looks weird, poking your fingers at nothing."

She's probably right.

[Tutorial Start!]  
[Tutorial Part One of Five: Stats and Skills]  
[The Gamer is a power that allows its wielder, also known as The Gamer, to live in the real world as if he is a game character.]  
[Stats are quantified and improve only by discrete amounts. Say "status window" with intent to open your character page to review stats and spend points earned by leveling. Try it now.]

I just stare at the screen. I can't believe I missed something that obvious. Heck, I can't believe my powers really are that videogame themed. Kinda thought all those windows were just my own weirdness effecting my power, to be honest.

"Are you okay?" Taylor's voice breaks me from my thoughts.

"Yeah. [Status Window]"

[James Barron]  
[The Gamer]  
[Level 2]  
[200/500 XP]  
[HP: 160/160]  
[MP: 430/430]  
[STR: 4]  
[AGI: 7]  
[VIT: 12]  
[INT: 39]  
[WIS: 4]  
[LUK: 5]  
[Points: 5]  
[Money: $0]

"Okay, that works." I dismiss the nearly-identical level-up window from the corner of my sight. I spent about half an hour bouncing off walls before I realized I could shove windows out of my face.

[Stats can be improved by spending points or through concerted effort. Each level of a stat takes more effort to earn, but any level only takes one more point to improve.]

Good, some games make you spend more points every certain number of levels. Like one point per level from 1-10, two per level from 11-20, and so on. It adds up quickly, and makes min-maxing almost wasteful. This gives me more freedom in how I build my chara- Myself. God, that's creepy. I'm my character.

[Skills is the term for special abilities granted or boosted by The Gamer. Skills also increase by discrete amounts. Say "skill window" with intent to review your skills and their levels. Try it now.]

"[Skill Window]" A window with four icons appears in front of me. The first two are unfamiliar, but I immediately recognize the others. [Sense Danger, Level 1] and [Observe, Level 3]. I played around with [Observe] a bit last night, but got bored when leveling didn't seem to change it much.

The other two I haven't seen before. I poke the first one.

[A Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lvl MAX]  
[Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological status effects.]

I guess that's why I know when Taylor is being scary, but don't really feel fear normally. Wonder if it affects Master powers? Let's see what the other one does.

[A Gamer's Body (Passive) Lvl MAX]  
[Grants the user a body like a game character. Health and general soundness of body are reflected as HP. Powers and special efforts use MP. Sleeping restores all HP/MP and relieves all status effects.]

I had guessed as much, and there had been a popup about being fully restored this morning. That one I'd felt safe dismissing.

[Skills can be gained from special actions or by using skill books.]

I wonder what counts as a skill book? I've got a few how-to books in my room. Chinese calligraphy and programming in BASIC. Nothing amazing, but I can use them to check if regular books count. I dismiss the skill window for now.

[Tutorial Part One: Completed!]  
[10 XP Awarded]  
[Tutorial Part Two of Five: Party System]

Party system? Really? How… I wonder how much this even does?

[Leaving your friends out is rude. Share the fun by forming a party and inviting them!]

...what's up with this tutorial? I look over at Taylor, who looks like she can't decide whether she's bored watching me stand there silently or amused by me essentially making odd faces and flailing at what looks like thin air.

[Say "create party [name]" with intent to form a party. Try it now.]

"[Create Party] ...tutorial?"

[Party "Tutorial?" Created]

I think my power is mocking me.

[Say "invite [name]" with intent to invite that person into the party. Try it now.]

Well, there's only one person to invite.. "[Invite Taylor Hebert]"

"What was th- AH!" She squeaks, but composes herself quickly and pokes the window hovering in front of her.

[Taylor Hebert has accepted your invite.]

So not fair. I was hoping she'd freak out a just a little.

[Party members can benefit from some aspects of The Gamer's power. Stat points and skills can be earned in a manner similar to The Gamer.]

"Really?" Taylor looks more excited by the text than by having freaking windows appearing in front of her face. "[Skills Window]" She's now happily jabbing away at the screen, humming thoughtfully. "How do you gain stats and skills?"

"I got five points to spend on stats from leveling up. Some games you get more points at higher levels, but most actually stay the same amount each time, so it'll probably stay the same." I think I'm forgetting something. "Oh! Not only did I get the one point of vitality in your locker, I earned three running home last night and two more running here today. Exercise works, with diminishing returns. Which I guess is kinda normal"

She nods behind her screen.

"Skills… so far I seem to get them based on things I do, but the tutorial said I can also use skill books to get new skills."

Taylor dismisses her window and starts giving me that wide-eyed look again, but more so. Like she's got ideas. She raises a finger, then drops it. "We'll come back to that. Can you make the tutorial continue?"

It seems that's the cue it was waiting for.

[Party members can also voice chat by stating the name of the party member they wish to contact, or all, with intent. Ending a chat simply requires stating "End" with intent. Please be aware that this is voice chat, not telepathy.]

I want to be insulted, but I'd probably make a call during stake-out and get someone killed without that reminder. ...I might still…

"I'll remind you." Her smirk is just as evident in her voice as on her face.

"That obvious?"

"Wis 4. On that subject, I want to see how much better level 12 is. [Status Window] Okay. Nice. Nice. Sweet. Awesome. ...FUCK!"

"What's wrong?"

"I have no luck." Her voice is flat and emotionless again, like at Fugly Bob's. Even aimed at her screen instead of me, her glare is still impressive.

I'm not sure what the deal is, but she seems really upset. I try to empathize. "My luck isn't exactly great eithe-"

"Not low luck. No luck. None," she rants, "Zero. Zilch. Cero. Less than one. It's…"

[Party members can choose to share XP evenly, regardless of actual contribution to earning the XP, provided all party members are within 10 levels of each other. Otherwise, XP is distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.]

Maybe I can lighten the mood. "Hey, I can just leach off my level 12 friend until I've got a few levels to work with."

She gives me a fake glare.

Well, I hope it's fake.

[Tutorial Part Two: Completed!]  
[10 XP Awarded]  
[Tutorial Part Three of Five: Illusion Barriers]

[Now that you've stood around poking at thin air and generally looking silly to any outside observer, it's time to show you how to practice in private.]

It really does seem like my power likes teasing me. ...I wonder what that says about me, psychologically speaking… Taylor's short laugh lets me now she's still reading along.

[This power can only be activated by The Gamer, but companions can be brought into the Illusion Barrier. To create an Illusion Barrier, simply raise one hand over your head, focus you energy there, and then flare it. Try it now.]

It reminds me of an Earth Aleph series I watched a few years ago. For a few minutes back then, I almost managed to convince myself I could feel a glowing energy throughout my body and draw it into one finger so I could fire off a Spirit Gun blast. Today, I really can feel the energy when I focus. I raise my right hand and energy from throughout my body converges there. I pulse the glowing energy hidden inside my hand.

[A skill has been created through a special action!]

The sudden silence is disturbing. I'd barely even noticed the creaking of shifting wrecks and gentle sloshing of waves, but it's obvious when they stop.

[A skill to make Illusion Barriers, [ID Create], has been created.]  
[ID Create (Active) Lvl 1 XP 0.0%]  
[Used to create instant dungeons. Stronger instant dungeons can be created according to level.]

That sounds like more than just a way to get some privacy. Too bad "stronger" doesn't really tell me anything useful. It could mean a lot of things.

"It worked, right? Everything looks the same, but the noise all stopped. And I can only sense the bugs I had on me." Taylor looks around uneasily, but the small swarm of wasps and ladybugs suddenly surrounding her are buzzing and zipping around like they're trying to find a hidden attacker.

Looking around, nearly everything looks the same. I do notice my backpack is gone. A second glance reveals that Taylor's duffle is missing as well. Better keep anything important in my hands if I use this in the future. "Yeah, it worked. And I got a skill called [ID Create] to do it again."

[Exiting the Illusion Barrier is almost the same. Raise your hand, focus your power, and flair it with the intent of exiting the barrier. But don't do it yet. We'll be finishing your tutorial here in the Illusion Barrier.]

[Tutorial Part Three: Completed!]  
[10 XP Awarded]  
[Tutorial Part Four of Five: Inventory and Equipment]

"…" I think I love my power. Even the lamest game inventories, with space and weight limits, are infinitely better than fumbling through your pockets for the right item or fighting to keep everything balanced in a heavier load. And since I didn't find the opening on accident, even when showering this morning, I bet anything I put in there will be pretty damn secure. Not to mention concealed. I can actually start collecting manga again, without having to worry about smuggling it past my mom.

[The Gamer has access to an extra-dimensional storage space that cannot be accessed by normal means. The interface for this inventory can also be used to review and quickly change equipment. While party members don't gain access to their own extra-dimensional space, they can still use this feature to sort items on hand and manage equipment. Say "inventory" with intent to access the inventory. Try it now.]

"Yes!" Taylor happily spins to look at where her bag was. "No!"

"What?"

"You don't get it? We can use the inventory to do quick changes. My costume takes almost half an hour to get into, but with your power, I can switch into it in a second." Her excitement fades as quickly as it appeared. "Or I could, if your power hadn't left it in another dimension."

[Presents have been left for The Gamer and party member in the inventory. It's rude to withhold a present for a lady.]

Hint taken, power. "[Inventory]"

A beige window appears in front of me. There's a diagram of me on the left side of the screen, displaying everything I'm wearing, and little box-like slots with each item displayed separately. [Red Hand-me-down T-Shirt], [Comfy Blue Jeans], [Worn Socks], [Old Sneakers], even [Expired Sample Contacts] and [Lucky Boxers]. Nope, never ever letting anyone see my inventory screen.

I focus on the right side of the screen. A four by six grid of boxes fills most of the space, with left and right arrows at the bottom. I guess that means I've got more than just 24 slots to work with, but there's no indicator of how many there are in total. I really doubt I've got infinite pages. And if I did, it'd be a huge pain to find everything out of hundreds of pages of junk. The first two spaces are already full. The first has an [Aluminium Baseball Bat]. The second is a [Pink Wooden Bat].

This feels like a trick question. Wordlessly, I draw the metal bat out of thin air and hand it to Taylor. The pink bat's icon is slid into the "main weapon" slot. The bat instantly appears in my hand. So cool.

Taylor gives the bats a look, and smirks at me, but doesn't comment.

[A smart decision causes you WIS to go up by 1.]

[Relationship with Taylor Hebert increased!]

[Tutorial Part Four: Completed!]  
[10 XP Awarded]  
[Tutorial Part Five of Five: Combat and Victory]

I think I should have kept the better bat.

 **Tutorial 2.2**

Oh fuck no. I do not want to fight a level 12 when I'm only level 2, and haven't even spent my stat points. This is bullshit. I want a refund. I want to talk to the man in char-

[Combat works largely the same as in the real world. To demonstrate, here's a zombie.]

Oh good. I'm not fighting Taylor. Wait, zombie?

A shambling corpse appears about twenty feet from us, near the bow of the ship. If it were dark out, I'd almost believe it had just melted out of the shadows. It's grotesque. Rotten flesh, maggot-ridden flesh, drooping flesh, swollen flesh, and missing flesh all mix into a patchwork horror no movie has ever truly portrayed. If it weren't for [Gamer's Mind], I'm sure I'd already be puking from the putrid smell of it. As is, I can hear Taylor fighting to hold her own gorge down.

[It's always best to know what you're getting into. Use [Observe] on opponents to identify potential weaknesses.]

I can already see the floating tags identifying it as a level 6 zombie, but more information can't hurt. "[Observe]"

[Zombie Lvl 6]  
[HP: 600/600 MP: 37/37]  
[A walking corpse. No matter how it died, it hates the living, attacking and eating their flesh. Although it's slow, its strength is twice as much as when it was living.]

"It's strong but slow. Pretty basic zombie, I guess." I don't know if Taylor has [Observe] or even if she can get it. It's not like she couldn't have guessed, but it's probably safer to share.

[Attacking works just like in real life. Hit your target until it stops moving, using whatever weapons you have. Try it now.]

Well, that's easy enough. While I really don't want to approach the reeking, rotting revenant, I'm not really afraid to do it. Thank you, [Gamer's Mind]. I choke up on the bat and rush forward.

Taylor's upward swing hits the zombie below the belt and takes it clean off its feet before I even get in range. [Critical!] Over half its red HP bar disappears in an instant. I'm too close and moving too fast to make the strike I was planning, but I manage to slam the butt of the pink bat into the airborne zombie's chest, throwing it into the ground. A sliver of HP vanishes from the initial hit, but impacting the ground takes it down to a little over 20%. With a quick spin of her bat on the downstroke of her initial blow, Taylor pulps the zombie's head. At 0% HP, the zombie melts into some kind of semi-solid shadow-stuff that evaporates in a matter of seconds. Damn, that must've looked badass. I only wish it was on purpose.

A wave of blue and pink windows appear in my face.

[You've got 64 XP]

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to knock enemies to the ground, [Grounding Strike], has been created.]  
[Grounding Strike (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0% / MP 10]  
[Knocks the target out of the air. 15% increase in attack damage per foot to ground.]  
[...and knock 'em down.]

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to utilize blunt weapons freely, [Blunt Weapon Mastery], has been created.]  
[Blunt Weapon Mastery (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%]  
[Allows user to freely handle blunt weapons. 10% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons. 5% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.]

Oh hells yeah. With the number of flying capes out there, I'm sure to benefit from [Grounding Strike] sooner or later. And [Blunt Weapon Mastery] is just plain overpowered. 5% increase in speed AND 10% damage? What'll that be like at max level? And XP is always welcome. I dismiss my windows.

Taylor is swiping at thin air. Oh, that's what I look like doing that. Hmm. Might want to figure out how to be more discrete about it. Best case scenario, I look like I'm trying to act cat-like and failing. More likely, people will think I'm having a spaz attack..

I guess she really can get skills too. "What did you get?"

"[Rising Strike], [Blunt Weapon Mastery], and [Finishing Blow]. What did you get?" Pride or maybe even glee fills her voice.

Ah. That's the face she keeps making when she finds something about my power interesting. "Nice. I got [Grounding Strike] and [Blunt Weapon Mastery]. That weapon mastery is freaking awesome. Something's weird about [Grounding Strike] though. The description had an extra line, dot dot dot 'and knock 'em down'?"

Taylor's laughter is unexpected. "My [Rising Strike] says 'Set 'em up…' " She waits for me to get the joke.

"...my power is weird."

She starts laughing again, and I have to chuckle a little.

[Nicely done! Defending also works like real life: try to not get hit, and if you do, expect it to hurt. Since you've already broken your first zombie, have a few more.]

Only one new zombie appears, standing only a few feet further along the bow. That's not "a few more". I must be missing some-

Taylor suddenly lunges away. A rotting arm thrusts through the space she's just vacated. Oh. I turn just in time to catch the flash of white bone exposed through missing knuckle-flesh before pain shoots through my temple.

[Danger!]

[Critical hit!]  
[-47 HP]  
[113/160 HP]

Fucking ouch. I'm on my back on the deck, one zombie right over me and another stumbling towards us. Taylor seems to be handling her corpse just fine. There's some kind of indicator blinking in the corner of my vision, but I don't have time to look at it.I don't think crawling to my feet with an enemy so close is a good idea, and I am so not capable of just flipping to my feet. Instead, I tuck my arms in and roll down the shallow slope of the deck. Memo to me: see if I can create a skill for getting to my feet quickly. Safely away from the undead, for now, and face-down, I scramble to my feet.

Roll roll roll. Thunk. Conveniently, the pink bat decided to follow me. I glance down to grab it.

[Danger!]

That fucking zombie is in my face again, the other one only a little behind. I can tell which one is closer, as it's the only one with flesh-less knuckles. Thankfully, I've got a little more room this time. And I'm more than a little pissed. That hurt! I put my whole weight into one over-done overhead smash.

He goes to his knees, but only about a fifth of his health fades. A second indicator starts blinking and goes ignored. The other zombie, which I passingly notice is a woman, or at least was one. Great, I've got his and hers matching zombies. Either way, I've got no chivalry for the undead. Another over-wound swing, this one from the side, topples her on top of the other zombie, knocking him over again. Wailing wildly away on them isn't sporting, but, you know… zombies.

I might have felt a little bad about it, but the girl manages to grab my ankle and pull me off my feel. The danger notice only pops up after she's latched on. Her grip alone is strong enough to take 6 more HP off me. And landing on my ass does 2 HP damage. I smack her arm a few times to get her to let go, then scramble back to my feet. Thankfully, the two corpses are so tangled up they don't get back up as quickly. I go back to smashing them with the bat, now with a little more vigor. It takes an embarrassingly long time to finish them off, and none of my subsequent strikes do as much as the first few.

As the revenants evaporate, I look up to see Taylor staring at me. I guess she finished well before me. And I probably was laughing a bit for a minute there.

[You got 192 XP]

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[Through the power of your body to endure pain and damage, [Physical Endurance], has been created.]  
[Physical Endurance (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 5.24%]  
[The body's durability increases and you take less damage. 3% decrease in damage from physical attacks.]

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to deliver a strong blow, [Power Strike], has been created.]  
[Power Strike (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 23.4% / MP 10]  
[Strikes the target with strong force. 15% increase in critical rate. 50% increase in attack damage.]

I might be drooling as I dismiss the windows. Just a few more skills like these, or a few levels in them, and I'll… probably still be no match for any real Parahuman. But I won't have to worry about getting mugged by a normal criminal. I might even survive facing two or three at a time.

"You… you've got a little something on your face." Taylor points to her cheek.

I reach up and wipe something wet off my face. Nasty. I'm not describing it, but I may have been a little overzealous with the zombies.

[Now that you've learned about attacking and defending, along with an impromptu lesson in handling multiple opponents, let's discuss loot.]

Someone's squealing with glee. It may or may not be me.


	5. Party Invite 2-1

We now return to Taylor Hebert for her view on the events. While this chapter is concurrent with Tutorial 2.1 & 2.2 of Co-Op mode and covers the same events from Taylor's PoV, this chapter is not included in Co-Op mode. So for those of you who already read Co-Op mode… new content!

* * *

 **Party Invite 2.1**  
I arrived early at the Ship Graveyard to scout it out. It wasn't entirely abandoned. There were homeless living here, but not many down by the beach. While there were plenty of wrecks around, they were regularly submerged beneath the tide and storm surges, so they weren't exactly fit for human habitation. With the economy of Brockton Bay being what it was there were plenty of other abandoned places to choose from that weren't regularly flooded. I'd managed to find a beached container ship that was accessible by climbing over a submerged tugboat. Two-thirds of the vessel was underwater, but what was left was almost perfect for power testing: no people, walled off from prying eyes, nothing at all of value that could be damaged, plenty of junk for target practice, and places to hide even if we did attract attention. My bugs would provide us with ample warning if someone did intrude.

I sat down on a rusty oil drum to wait. I took out a notepad where I'd jotted down some ideas and reviewed them. I was really looking forward to finding out more about James's powers. His powers were weird, but there was safety in numbers. Just spotting other capes would be useful, but I needed to know what else he could do. I'd come up with quite a few ideas for testing his abilities since we'd parted. The Capes and Crooks books had been helpful, but not as much as an older less popular game, Dungeons and Dragons, 2.5 edition. That book had levels and skills and stats like vitality, although they'd called it constitution.

After reading them I'd decided that the most important thing to determine was whether James had a Thinker power that reported when statistics like vitality improve or if he had some kind of power that allowed him to easily improve statistics and skills. The easiest way to do that would probably be by testing strength. If we had access to a gym or a weight set, it would be easy. We didn't, or at least I didn't have access to one. I'd brought a bathroom scale. My plan was to use an empty oil drum, weigh various bits of junk, fill it up and find out the maximum James could lift. Then we'd both do a strength workout. I'd brought some dumbbells for that. After James got a strength check, we could see if he could lift more. If it was a thinker power, then James shouldn't have an observable change in a few hours of working out. If it was something else, then I hoped expect to see an obvious increase.

The next thing I wanted to test was skill acquisition and improvement. James had mentioned that Danger Sense was not very useful. However, that would be a very useful skill IF it could be improved. That led to the same question. Either he had a thinker power that was merely quantifying skills as he learned them at a normal rate, or his power allowed him to improve at an accelerated rate. To test danger sense, I planned to use the kung fu movie method – have James close his eyes, then randomly hit him with a stick and see if he could learn to sense the danger. I expected James not to be at all thrilled with that method. For skill acquisition I'd borrowed a fishing knife from Dad's tackle box. I wanted to see if having James stab at a target would trigger him getting a knife skill. As another test, I wanted him to try sneaking up on me, with my bugs sent away, to see if he could pick up a stealth skill. Having some kind of stranger ability could come in handy.

My bugs let me know that James was approaching. I loved having an early warning system. I directed some ladybugs to form arrows to guide James to me. I could have used more threatening insects, but I was trying to build the habit of using ladybugs for my public face. While they led James to me, I closed my notebook. One thing that I hadn't written down that I needed to remember: this was James's power. He seemed to be willing to let me take the lead, and I liked that, but this partnership of ours was in the early stages. I didn't want to get bossy trying to tell him how to use his power. I needed to let him volunteer his own ideas first. I could introduce my ideas later.

"You're early." I gave him a nod of approval. Early was a good sign that he was taking this seriously. Since not taking things seriously could cause both of us to end up dead, that was important to me.

"Thanks for the directions."

Or maybe I was wrong about him taking this seriously. James looked a little spaced out. "Are you okay? You've got a weird look on your face…"

"I just finished the quest to meet you here. 200 XP and it 'unlocked the tutorial'. It wants to know if I want to view the tutorial now?" He made a gesture in the air as if pushing something that wasn't there. "It's kinda annoying that these block my view when they pop up. At least I can just slide them to the side if I'm not ready to close 'em."

Seriously? He got popups that blocked his view? That could be a real problem in the middle of a fight. "Why would you leave them open?"

"Um… I'm not sure how to open screens up again. And I don't want to wait for however long it'll take to level up again to spend my points."

Cool! "So you really do get points? Do you know what this means?" I hopped down from the oil drum and tried to get a better look. While James was apparently looking at something, I couldn't see the slightest distortion in the air, nor could my bugs feel anything flying about us. "What stats can you spend them on? What are your stats at now? Why haven't you spent them already?"

James backed up and dropped his backpack. "Yes. No?" He started pushing his hands at nothing again. "4 strength, 7 agility, 12 vitality, 39 intelligence, 4 wisdom…and 5 luck. I wanted to check with you before I spent any. Should I focus on vitality to tank for you? Strength to put attackers down hard or hold them still for you? Agility to actually be able to hit them? I also practiced with [Observe] some -"

I let a little laugh slip out when James mentioned his wisdom of four and felt immediately guilty. Yes, that was very James, but laughing about it wasn't nice. He compounded my guilt by offering to spend his points to make him a better partner for me. Then he trailed off again. I waved my hand through the place he seemed to be staring at – nothing. "What happened?"

"I… just accidentally triggered that power that gives me a little more detail about who or whatever I'm focused on. Your title has changed."

"It was [Unaffiliated Parahuman], right?" Now what is it?

James nodded. "And now it's [Novice Hero]. I wonder how much that even means? After all, titles in games can be purely cosmetic or really awesome boosts to stats or skills or growth."

"No way to tell though?" His power was so weird.

"Not that I've found yet."

"Well, maybe we should learn more about your power first. Go ahead and open the tutorial." That wasn't bossing him, just… encouraging.

"Sounds weird without a computer around…" More poking in the air.

"Looks weird, poking your fingers at nothing." He didn't really react. Just stared at something I couldn't see. I counted to ten. Still staring. Did he get sucked in? "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. [Status Window]"

Wait, what? Did he just give a voice command?

"Okay, that works." He jabbed the air again looking satisfied.

What worked? So he has a status window? Strangest thinker power ever.

"[Skills Window]" He kept staring.

I might as well not be here. It really wasn't new that his power quantified his stats and skills, but that it would display them on demand was new. How was his power doing this? It didn't even match up with what I knew about trigger events. I got trapped in a locker full of bugs, so I triggered with bug powers. That at least made a little bit of sense. James got beat up and triggered with videogame powers. That made no sense at all. In the end his theme didn't matter as much as the results; except that it made him act like a mime. Maybe that could be his hero name, Mr. Mime.

"[Create Party] ...tutorial?"

Party? As in team? Now that could be interesting!

"[Invite Taylor Hebert]"

"What was th- AH!" Suddenly I had my very own window with text written on it asking me if I wanted to join the party. I should have expected that. The new window was only visible for me. My bugs flew through it without feeling a thing. Right. I pressed the yes button. I felt no resistance, but suddenly more words appeared.

[You have joined the party Tutorial?]

[Party members can benefit from some aspects of The Gamer's power. Stat points and skills can be earned in a manner similar to The Gamer.]

"Really?" Whoa. Who cared about how silly it looked. James has the best power ever! Would it respond to me now that I was in the party? "[Skills Window]" Oh yeah! I had skills! I had lots of skills!

[Invertebrate Control (Sustained) Lvl MAX]  
[Grants the ability to mentally command all invertebrates within control range.]  
[When in doubt more bees.]

Invertebrates. That made too much sense. I had originally thought my power was insect control, but it included spiders so that made it arthropods, but I'd already known about worms and leeches. I should have figured out invertebrates on my own. This made it much more versatile than I'd thought. I'd studied up on bugs, but I needed to do more research on other spineless critters.

[Multitasking (Passive) Lvl MAX]  
[The ability to manage 10 to the 48th power concurrent mental operations at the same time. This ability is limited by the input and output channels available to the character.]

No fucking way! I knew that I could control a lot of bugs at once, but I had seriously underestimated my own abilities. Even more shocking, Multitasking was listed as independent of my ability to control invertebrates. Thinking about it, I could easily individually adjust each of my fingers in complex patterns while reading this. It wasn't even an effort. Oh, this had potential!

[Invertebrate Clairsentience (Sustained) Lvl MAX]  
[The ability to receive the sensory input of invertebrates within control range. This includes sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, equilibrium and kinesthesia.]

Wait, what? That wasn't right. I could feel where my bugs were at all times, mostly feel what they touched. Smelling and taste – usually. However, hearing was wonky and trying to use sight was an exercise in pain. This was wrong.

[Clairsentience Blocking (Sustained) Lvl 89 Exp 40.4%]  
[The ability to selectively block out clairsentience to prevent sensory overload.]  
[The voices. Someone turn off the voices!]

Again with the not quite right. No, wait… This must be what happened when I first triggered. I almost went insane before I learned to shut out everything my bugs were screaming at me all the time. When I tried to see or hear things I had to relax that control. So this interpretation matched even if it was a backwards way of describing it.

[Mental Control Area (Passive) Lvl 38 Exp 34.7%]  
[This skill determines the ZoC, Zone of Control, of the character's active mental powers.]  
[ZoC is 3 meters per level, currently 114 meters]

Well damn, that spelled it out quite clearly didn't it? Three meters per level. This more than implied that I could expand my radius with practice. Making the most of my ability to multitask, I immediately sent out bugs to the extreme limits of my range to work on extending it outward.

[Lingering Command (Sustained) Lvl 22 Exp 99.1%]  
[This skill determines how long effected creatures will continue to follow mental commands when no longer controlled]  
[Commands linger for 66 minutes.]

Huh, James's power was really proving its usefulness. Just knowing this was a skill that I could work on and improve was very valuable. Also that 99.1% experience was interesting. I should be able to level it easily.

[Sense Processing (Passive) Lvl 17 Exp 85.4%]  
[The ability to process non-human senses without backlash. Chance of backlash increases with more inhuman senses.]

Backlash, that would be the headaches, passing out and catatonia. If the backlash was based on how far senses diverged from my own, then I should start by trying to interpret smells and taste better, then working my way up to hearing and leave sight for last. That insight alone was worth more than I could put a price to.

[Fashion Design, Passive Lvl 11 Exp 15.3%]  
[You know how to design clothes for both utility and appearance. Well designed clothes can provide bonuses to reaction rolls, defense, and other stats.]  
[You look mahvelous, dahling.]

Fashion design? Really? And was James's power mocking me?

[Cryptography, Passive Lvl 3 Exp 41.8%]  
[A skill for making and breaking codes and ciphers. +1% INT]  
[A1, B2, C3, no you didn't sink my battleship.]

Now I was certain that James's power was mocking me, but those bonuses on Cryptography opened all kinds of doors. Did that mean other skills might come with a bonus to statistics? "How do you gain stats and skills?"

"I got five points to spend on stats from leveling up. Some games you get more points at higher levels, but most actually stay the same amount each time, so it'll probably stay the same… Oh! Not only did I get the one point of vitality in your locker, I earned three running home last night and two more running here today. Exercise works, with diminishing returns. Which I guess is kinda normal. Skills… so far I seem to get them based on things I do, but the tutorial said I can also use skill books to get new skills."

Skill books! Oh my god, the possibilities. I could… completely take over and boss James about his power. I even had my finger in the air to wave at him. I needed to chill. I lowered my finger. "We'll come back to that. Can you make the tutorial continue?"

[Party members can also voice chat by stating the name of the party member they wish to contact, or all, with intent. Ending a chat simply requires stating "End" with intent. Please be aware that this is voice chat, not telepathy.]

Heh, James's power mocked him even more than me. "I'll remind you."

"That obvious?"

"Wis 4. On that subject, I want to see how much better level 12 is. [Status Window]"

[Taylor Hebert]  
[Level 12]  
[Novice Hero]

I still wasn't sure what Novice Hero meant, or how good level 12 was without a scale to measure it against. Now, the good stuff.

[STR: 9] "Okay."  
[AGI: 13] "Nice."  
[VIT: 23] "Nice."  
[INT: 32] "Sweet."  
[WIS: 58] "Awesome."  
[LUK: 0] What the? "FUCK!"

"What's wrong?"

"I have no luck." I'd like to think this was James's power screwing with me again, but the truth hurt. There it was in print. A great big fat zero. That explained so much.

James made an weak attempt to sympathize with me. "My luck isn't exactly great eithe-"

"Not low luck. No luck. None, Zero. Zilch. Cero. Less than one. It's…"

[Party members can choose to share XP evenly, regardless of actual contribution to earning the XP, provided all party members are within 10 levels of each other. Otherwise, XP is distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.]

Right. Not the time or the place for a rant and not James's fault, or even his powers'. XP sounded good.

"Hey, I can just leach off my level 12 friend until I've got a few levels to work with." James was aiming for funny, but didn't quite make it.

I shifted my glare to him, but my heart wasn't in it. I wasn't mad at James. I was furious with my life.

[Tutorial Part Two: Completed!]  
[10 XP Awarded]  
[Tutorial Part Three of Five: Illusion Barriers]

[Now that you've stood around poking at thin air and generally looking silly to any outside observer, it's time to show you how to practice in private.]

Now James's power is mocking both of us. That breaks the rest of my tension and pulls an unwilling laugh out of me.

[This power can only be activated by The Gamer, but companions can be brought into the Illusion Barrier. To create an Illusion Barrier, simply raise one hand over your head, focus you energy there, and then flare it. Try it now.]

James put his hand in the air. Nothing visible happened, but suddenly every bug that wasn't in direct contact with my body vanished. It was a rather scary feeling, like being suddenly blindfolded. Almost reflexively I commanded the bugs still on me to spread out. As they flew out from me, my awareness of my surroundings returned, albeit lacking in the detail it had before. It was also quiet. Too quiet. "It worked, right? Everything looks the same, but the noise all stopped. And I can only sense the bugs I had on me."

"Yeah, it worked. And I got a skill called [ID Create] to do it again."

[Exiting the Illusion Barrier is almost the same. Raise your hand, focus your power, and flare it with the intent of exiting the barrier. But don't do it yet. We'll be finishing your tutorial here in the Illusion Barrier.]

I wondered if I could learn those skills. The name, Illusion Barrier, said a lot. So none of this was real. That meant… James was part Master? If someone was outside would they see us standing around with vacant looks on our faces? That could be really bad.

[Tutorial Part Three: Completed!]  
[10 XP Awarded]  
[Tutorial Part Four of Five: Inventory and Equipment]

[The Gamer has access to an extra-dimensional storage space that cannot be accessed by normal means. The interface for this inventory can also be used to review and quickly change equipment. While party members don't gain access to their own extra-dimensional space, they can still use this feature to sort items on hand and manage equipment. Say "inventory" with intent to access the inventory. Try it now.]

"Yes!" That was everything I hoped for out of 'inventory' and more. I reached for my bag for my costume and it was gone. "No!"

"What?"

"You don't get it? We can use the inventory to do quick changes. My costume takes almost half an hour to get into, but with your power, I can switch into it in a second." Alright, not really half an hour, but it took less time to get the skirts hung right than it did to wriggle into my costume. However, I couldn't try it out, because like most of my bugs my bag wasn't here right now. "Or I could, if your power hadn't left it in another dimension."

[Presents have been left for The Gamer and party member in the inventory. It's rude to withhold a present for a lady.]

Lady? Did James's power know?

"[Inventory]," James commanded.

Saying things out loud like that would get James and I noticed quickly. As an experiment I mouthed a not even audible "[Inventory]" and was pleased to see a beige window popup. There was a Barbie doll version of me taking up most of the screen with little boxes of clothes arrayed around it. [Thrift Shop Hoodie], [Bland Shirt], [Old Jeans], [Clean Socks], [Tattered Sneakers], [Blue Jogging Bra], [Pink Hearts Panties], [Smeared Glasses], and [Cheap Watch]. At the bottom was another comment in dull yellow. [Fashion Rating = Unfashionable, -20% to initial reaction rolls, +10% to pity rolls. Aren't you a sad little thing?]

I dismissed the window with an angry wave and watched James. There had been something about presents for a lady. It had better be good to make up for… And James reached into thin air and pulled out a bat. Inventory. Reading it and looking at the screen was one thing. Watching him pull a shiny aluminum baseball bat out of thin air was something else. As I took the bat from James another bat appeared in James's hand. Only his bat was a girly pink. I looked from my shiny metal bat to his pink wooden one and smirked. I probably would have taken the girly bat if he'd asked, but it was cool that he didn't stereotype me.

[Relationship with James Barron increased!]

His power is so weird.

[Tutorial Part Four: Completed!]  
[10 XP Awarded]  
[Tutorial Part Five of Five: Combat and Victory]

[Combat works largely the same as in the real world. To demonstrate, here's a zombie.]

I was getting too used to James's bullshit power. I was more bothered by the lack of advanced warning from my bugs than the sudden appearance of something from Night of the Living Dead part 23. It was the typical horror movie reject: rotting swollen flesh with raw meat hanging off of it. However, no horror movie was that real. Movies don't come with the smell of the grave. Worse, they don't have real maggots in the flesh sending me that taste of death and describing it as yummy. I barely avoided puking as I hurriedly closed off listening to the tastes from the maggots.

[It's always best to know what you're getting into. Use [Observe] on opponents to identify potential weaknesses.]

As James calls out "[Observe]", I try muttering it, but nothing happens. I look to James for details.

"It's strong but slow. Pretty basic zombie, I guess."

[Fighting works just like in real life. Hit your target until it stops moving, using whatever weapons you have. Try it now.]

Right. Hammer time. The zombie really was slow. I rushed towards it and brought my bat up. With the maggots inside the creature aiming was easy. It was like reaching out to touch my own hand. I smashed it in the balls, and actually lifted it up and off its feet. James swung his bat like a sledgehammer and slammed it onto the deck I followed it up by caving in the thing's head… and it vanished along with the maggots that fed off it. The thing fadeed away into some kind of shadow-stuff, but I couldn't see because I was flooded with pop-ups.

[You've got 53 XP]

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to send enemies flying, [Rising Strike], has been created.]  
[Rising Strike (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%]  
[Knocks the target into the air. + 15% increase to knockback.]  
[Set 'em up…]

So, no extra damage? What good was it then? Was knockback a gaming term? Would it do damage if I knocked a zombie into something like a wall?

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to utilize blunt weapons freely, [Blunt Weapon Mastery], has been created.]  
[Blunt Weapon Mastery (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%]  
[Allows user to freely handle blunt weapons. 10% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons. 5% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.]

Alright! This sounded much better. I had considered picking up a sword to go with my costume, but I didn't really think the Protectorate would smile on me having an edged weapon. My new bat had a nice heft to it, but wouldn't match my costume. Maybe a scepter or something? A collapsible baton might be better, easier to carry. This tutorial had proved I shouldn't depend on having access to James's inventory.

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to finish off injured opponents, [Finishing Blow], has been created.]  
[Finishing Blow (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%]  
[Allows user to strike an incapacitated target for bonus damage. 25% increase in critical rate. 100% increase in attack damage. Can only be used on prone opponents.]  
[... and stay down!]

Holy shit. Double damage at first level? Would it get stronger? I'd have to be careful with this one. I could use it on zombies and tough brutes, but this could kill a normal person. Then again, I had caved in the zombie's skull with a baseball bat. That would certainly kill a normal person. Against zombies, the power combo was awesome.

"What did you get?" Interrupted James.

"[Rising Strike], [Blunt Weapon Mastery], and [Finishing Blow]." I gave him a big toothy smile. "How about you?"

"Nice. I got [Grounding Strike] and [Blunt Weapon Mastery]. That weapon mastery is freaking awesome. Something's weird about [Grounding Strike] though. The description had an extra line, dot dot dot 'and knock 'em down'?"

Weapon mastery wasn't as awesome as [Finishing Blow], but I was more amused by James's power. It was really trolling us and I couldn't help but laugh. "My [Rising Strike] says 'Set 'em up…'

"...my power is weird." James finished as he got the joke.

I burst out laughing again. In that we were in total agreement.

[Nicely done! Defending also works like real life: try to not get hit, and if you do, expect it to hurt. Since you've already broken your first zombie, have a few more.]

One zombie popped out of nowhere in front of us, but I sensed the presence of three maggot-filled bodies; one of them was swinging at me! I spun away barely in time to avoid getting my head caved in. It wasn't the most graceful of dodges, but it worked. I kept spinning and tried to follow-through and smash it, but I was off-balance and barely clipped the zombie. It didn't seem at all fazed by the blow. James was in trouble. He was tumbling down the gentle slope of the deck with two zombies after him. I needed to put this one down hard and fast.

The zombie shuffled forward slowly. He looked like a reject from office space of the dead wearing a dirt encrusted suit with a red tie. Perched on top of its head like a dunce cap was a bright orange traffic cone. The zombie staggered closer and tried to tag me with a clumsy swing. The maggots in its body made it ridiculously easy to avoid, although the maggots felt wrong, somewhat… itchy for want of a better word. I really didn't have time to explore that sensation in the middle of combat. I stepped forward swinging my bat like a golf club trying to activate the Rising Strike skill. My aluminum bat made contact with its crotch and sent it flying toward the prow of the boat.

For a moment I weighed running to help James, but he was already back on his feet and fighting. I'd seen enough zombie horror films not to assume the zombie I was facing was down for the count. Better to finish the job than leave it alive (unalive?) and turn my back on it. So I advanced on it and caught it as it was staggering back to its feet. Another upward strike caught it under the chin and sent it tumbling backward. I followed up with two more pummeling blows before it vanished in a wave of darkness.

James meanwhile had his fight under control. Both zombies were down. He whaled away at both their prone bodies while ranting at them, "Die, die, you rotting undead freaks, die…"

I made an executive decision that James needed a few moments. I kept monitoring the situation with my bugs, but I decided to focus on the pop-up windows.

[You got 64 XP]

I still didn't know how much experience I needed to level up or if I could spend points to increase my stats, particularly luck but more experience had to be good.

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to avoid enemy attacks, [Dodge], has been created.]  
[Dodge (Sustained) Lvl 1 Exp 3.2%]  
[A dedicated action to avoid an attack. +10% to Agility while dodging]  
[Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.]

Okay, this skill wasn't too surprising after receiving three other skills for using a bat. Ten percent wasn't that much only a point or so of agility, but every little bit helped. I had one more screen.

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to create a map of the battlefield, [Combat Mapping] has been created.]  
[Combat Mapping (Sustained) Lvl 1 Exp 23.3%]  
[By the use of controlled proxies a map of the battlefield is created. Negates [Stealth] of tagged foes and penalties for blindness. Grants limited awareness of zone of control and combat bonuses versus all tagged opponents. Effects increase with skill level.]

Hmm, sounded vague, but promising. In part this was merely telling me what I'd already noticed – it was easy to dodge and hit foes when I had my bugs on them (or maggots inside them). It would be like knowing my own hand trying to sneak up on me, or finding my foot. It was almost instinctive.

[You got 128 XP]

The alert confirmed what the vanishing maggots told me, both of James's zombies were dead, make that destroyed. James… still looked a bit out of it. I'm not sure what was the right thing to do here. James went a little nuts, but it was with good reason. They were zombies, so not exactly wrong to turn them into maggotburgers, just disturbing. Then again, who was I to complain? I'd had a full-blown psychotic break of my own. Before Emma's inner bitch devoured her soul, I would have given old Emma a hug. James wasn't that kind of friend yet, plus he was a teenaged boy, which meant he had that male ego thing going on. I decided to give him some space and watch.

[Careful deliberation and good choices causes your WIS to go up by 1.]

Right, so that happened. James apparently had pop-ups to read, because he started swiping and punching fingers at the air. Whatever he read must have improved his mood because he started smiling a happy smile instead of an axe-murderer smile. Hopefully he was better now? Except he still had zombie guts on him. "You… you've got a little something on your face."

James reached up and wiped his face, but still didn't say anything.

[Now that you've learned about attacking and defending, along with an impromptu lesson in handling multiple opponents, let's discuss loot.]

James let out a squeal that disturbingly reminded me of old-Emma spotting a pair of 'simply adorable' shoes on sale for twenty percent off. Note to self, James wasn't all there.


	6. Tutorial 2-3

Tutorial 2.3 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Tutorial 2.3**

Taylor's giving me an odd look. I guess she isn't familiar with the glory of loot.

[For the uninitiated, loot is a term for items left behind by defeated enemies. This can include weapons, clothing, armor, accessories, consumables, crafting materials, skill books, currency, or other useful items.]

She looks more interested now. I hope I'm not drooling.

[Loot that has yet to be picked up will glimmer slightly to the eyes of The Gamer and party members. For the sake of demonstration, more loot than usual has been dropped by the zombies you just destroyed.]

Even with a boost, I can't expect much out of a few zombies. Still, it's easy even in midday light to spot the glittering trinkets at my feet left. Looks like the undead I killed over here left two shards of something like amethyst, a tooth, and a rib bone. I guess I know what to do now.

"You mind getting anything over there? [Observe], [Observe], [Observe]"

[Tooth of the Dead]  
[Rank: Low; Type: Crafting Item]  
[A dirty and filthy tooth filled with the resentment of the dead. Used for black magic, alchemy, and crafting.]

[Soul Shard]  
[Rank: Low]  
[A crystal shard created by fusing a number of souls. Useful for some things.]

[Rib of the Dead]  
[Rank: Low-Medium; Type: Crafting Item]  
[A grimy and broken rib filled with the vigor of the undead. Used for black magic, alchemy, and crafting.]

I walk over to Taylor, who using her foot to nudge at the loose pile of loot left over from the two zombies that fell on that side of the deck. It looks like two more [Soul Shards], another [Tooth of the Dead], a piece of paper, and a roll of pale, vaguely gross leather. "What've we got here? [Observe] and [Observe]"

[Skin of the Dead]  
[Rank: Medium; Type: Crafting Item]  
[Leather tanned from the hide of a zombie. Filled with the resilience of the undead. Used for black magic, alchemy, and crafting.]

[Blueprint: Undead Pauldrons]  
[Rank: Low-Medium]  
[Shoulder armor made from parts of vanquished undead. Protects against some damage and grants a bonus to VIT. Requires 1 [Skin of the Dead], 4 [Rib of the Dead], and 10 [Tooth of the Dead]]

"What is it?"

"Nasty. The teeth and this rib" I show Taylor my fistful of loot. "And the leather are all from zombies. They can be used to make things. And the gems are soul stones. In most games, they can be used to make magic items."

"And yet, you still sound excited."

I hold up the blueprint, grinning. "Magic armor. Or at least the plans to make it with a few more ribs and teeth. It'll be a little gross and dark, but magic armor is magic armor. And there should be better drops later, from stronger enemies. Also, the tutorial did mention money."

She still doesn't seem convinced. "Magic armor? Your power may be weird, but I'd be careful about calling it magic. Myrddin is the head of the Chicago Protectorate, and a very powerful cape, but a lot of people talk about him like he's a few bees short of a hive because he claims to cast spells." She shrugs. "I'm not saying the armor won't work, I just wouldn't call it magic. I did get some nice skills off that last fight… Anyway, I've got [Dodge] and [Combat Mapping] now. I can use [Combat Mapping] to keep track of enemies."

Well, until I get more materials, I can't exactly believe it yet myself. Tinkering is one thing, enchanted gear made from zombie bits is… unusual. And I'm pretty sure Dauntless, the most similar power I've heard of, can't share his gear.

Her new skills sound awesome. "This is my jealous face. Knowing where your enemies are is much better than getting warned of danger too late to avoid it. And dodging is always better than taking 3% less damage like I get from [Physical Resistance]. I also got [Power Strike]. It does more damage, but costs MP."

Taylor nods. "3% is something. Maybe it can improve with training." She pauses for a moment. "And more damage is always good." She pauses again. " ...when it happens to other people." Taylor's words surge and halt, like an overeager horse she keeps reining in.

"We'll try later. For now, I kinda want to finish this tutorial."

"James? Wait please." Taylor is staring at me intently. "I need to say something." Never good words to hear from a girl. "Your power is really useful." But…? "Even if it were just a Thinker power and quantifying what we learned, it's given me so many hints about how I can improve myself that I hardly know where to start." Says the level 12 to the level 2. "But it seems you power is more. That it can help people acquire and improve skills. That's… so useful. I want to see if I can learn all those skills, but… this is _important_. You _need_ to be careful."

She takes a moment to catch her breath. "I like you."

Mike drop. Pause everything. Did she just-

"We're at least partners, and I'd say friends, even if your power hadn't said so."

Ah. Okay. Back in familiar territory.

"It would be so easy to get swept up in the numbers and skills, but I'm not going to use you for your power. Someone else might. You need to be _very_ careful about who finds out about your powers. A lot of new capes get pressed into gangs. If Empire Eighty-Eight knew about you…"

They'd burn the Docks to the ground, or even go to war with Lung himself to get their hands on me. If what I'm starting to suspect about my powers is true, I could probably boost even a relatively minor threat like Skidmark to Triumvirate levels given time. If any gang gets me… they'd never let me go.

Taylor isn't done, "Even the Wards. If you join the Protectorate, even in a minor capacity, they'll turn you into a personal trainer. They'll keep you far from combat and keep you training others all the time."

Maybe it would be for the best. The amount of good I could do, even indirectly, might be worth it. But I have to admit it, now that I have powers, I kinda want to get out there and get my hands dirty. I don't want to spend my days tucked away in a bunker-dojo, never getting to use my skills in a practical setting. But I can't just squander this power, the ability to share it…

"I wouldn't want to be treated like that if it was my power. So… yeah, just needed to say that. Um, are we still good?" She seems hesitant, like she thinks she said something wrong.

I take a moment to process. Heck, even if it was just the brief moment of thinking a girl who's suddenly gone from acquaintance to confident actually wanted more, I'd need some time. But this stark reminder of what my power could mean, the danger I might be in… I take a deep breath. "Taylor. You've given me no reason to stop trusting you. And you've given me a lot to think about. I've been a little swept up in the whole 'omigawd-I-have-powers' thing. I didn't even consider the implications of all this," I wave my hand at, oh right, the zombies dissolved… "I still think we should join the Wards at some point, but you're clearly thinking this through more than me. Whether we join them, work with just us, or start a new independent team, you're the boss."

Taylor's just staring at me. Did I just ruin things by being too… dramatic?

[A smart decision causes your WIS to go up by 1.]

[Relationship with Taylor Hebert has increased!]  
[Relationship with Taylor Hebert has advanced from 'Friends' to 'Teammates']

...reassurance from my own power seems a little hollow… Something needs to break the silence.

[This Illusion Barrier is useless now. Exit it to end to tutorial.]

That works. Well, there's nothing left to do in here, and I want to get back to my backpack. I've got lunch bagged up for both of us, and zombie smashing is hungry work. Right hand up, energy focused, intent to exit is a go.

It's almost like someone painted the sky on the inside of a cheap glass bowl, then chucked a stone through it. Just to reveal the real sky behind it. And the sounds we'd just gotten used to not hearing restart. Waves crash, birds chirp, and bugs all buzz up to Taylor like they're greeting a long lost friend.

[A skill has been created through a special action!]

[A skill to exit Illusion Barriers, [ID Escape], has been created.]  
[ID Escape (Active) Lvl 1 XP 0.0%]  
[Used to exit instant dungeons. Higher levels can be used to escape more powerful barriers.]

I hope that doesn't mean I could get stuck in one of my own barriers if I don't keep up with leveling this. Better safe than sorry though. I'll make sure to keep it even with ID Create, however that works.

[Tutorial Part Five of Five Complete!]  
[Tutorial Complete!]  
[10 XP awarded!]  
[A "Beginner's Guide to The Gamer" has been added to your inventory.]

[You've gained 1 level.]

Along with all the other windows popping up, I get another 'spend your points' abbreviated form of my character screen. I dismiss it with the rest. Food first. Then I can ask Taylor if she has any ideas where I should spend my points.

[A smart decision causes your WIS to go up by 1.]

Speaking of Taylor, it looks like she's… petting a loose cloud of hornets, wasps, and ladybugs. And cooing at them. It's creepily cute. Kind of like an inverse-Madison. Should be creepy, but is cute. Somehow.

"[Inventory]" I stuff the various bits of loot into my own private extradimensional storage and watch them sort out into separate slots. You'd think after seeing it in a hundred games it wouldn't be so cool to see it in person. But for now I should focus on my more mundane storage. I fish a few things out of my backpack. "Hungry? The quest suggested packing a lunch, so I brought PB&J. And faux-ham-salad sandwiches, but carnivores seem to find that gross."

Taylor looks surprised I'm still here, but recovers quickly. "Maybe in a bit. I… want to ask your opinion on something. Can you wait a minute? Or you could set up lunch. I'll be right back." She grabs her duffle and zips behind a container the size of a boxcar.

Strange girl. But I might as well get lunch ready. There's a blanket to unfold, two tupperware containers to keep the sandwiches from squishing ('cause squished PB&J is not the same), and a couple bottles of water. It still barely takes a minute to get it all arranged.

Apparently that's enough. "Don't laugh." She steps into view.

Oh. Damn. She did mention wanting to try the quick change. Now _that_ is a costume.

Overall, she's got a bit of a knight-in-shining-armor thing going on, plus a regal robe. But that doesn't do it justice. It's still built for agility and the detail is amazing. The whole thing works together flawlessly. So many starting capes have mismatched pieces forming their first 'costume'. If this was an online RPG, Taylor would have a matching set compared to their mismatched starter gear.

The first thing I notice is a big red cloak she's pushing behind her shoulders, probably so I can actually see the rest of the costume. The cloak has a black inner lining, and I think I saw black circles on the back before it moved out of sight.

From there I work my way down. She's wearing a fairly simple white helmet with a gold crown fused to it. The helmet is kinda medieval, but lacks a visor or faceplate. Instead, she has a white mask shaped like a stern, regal woman's face, except for some really intimidating yellow lenses in place of eyes. Her dark curly hair hangs out the back, highlighting her femininity.

There's a golden breastplate done in a vaguely organic style next. The… ah… chest… is a little bigger than I think Taylor is naturally, but still done in a sensible single-breasted, high-coverage style. None of that pseudo-bodice lift-and-separate, guide-swords-to-the-center nonsense you see in fantasy games. Or on most armor-wearing female capes. The entire piece also extends down to her belt, instead of leaving room to show off abs and ask to be gutted.

Her gold-colored belt has a bright red clasp in the shape of a ladybug. The entire thing seems to be a row of pockets, each bulging slightly. There's something with a red cap that doesn't quite fit in one of the pockets. Looks like my sister's pepper spray. Come to think of it, that's probably what it is.

Considering how practical the rest of the outfit seems, I'm not really sure what's up with the skirt. It looks more like someone decided to tie a dozen scarves in white, gold, and black to her belt. They're artistically draped, looping around to form a modest cover with a partial split in the middle. Well, it does look good, and isn't too long, so it shouldn't get in the way.

Gloves and boots are both what I expect. Gold-colored. Mid-forearm and mid-calf. Functional but elegant. The boots have heavy, but not excessive tread. And the gloves look like there's a little extra padding or something across the knuckles, like she's planned for occasional punching.

It's all tied together by a tight white bodysuit of some kind under everything. It starts all the way under her helmet, and goes all the way down under her boots. No skin anywhere, which is smart for anyone without a Brute rating. Hell, most Brutes should do it anyway. Easier to hide your identity if you keep your skin tone concealed.

All in all it's very regal and heroic, with just a little bug theme from the buckle. Oh, that's probably what's up with the spots on the cloak… It's also a great theme for a Master's costume. If I were to nitpick, I'd say it's a bit New Wave, with all the white, but…

"It's fantastic."

I think she's smiling behind the mask. "Meet Lady Bug."


	7. Party Invite 2-2

This chapter marks the start of Faria Lyton's and my attempts to start leapfrogging through the story. Party Invite 2.2 advances the story and fleshes out a scene not covered in Co-Op mode. So this is not just Taylor PoV of other content. Join Taylor Hebert and James Barron for lunch:

* * *

 **Party Invite 2.2**

I took off my mask and sat down to eat with James on the little picnic spread he'd laid out. My bugs were back on patrol duty, so we'd have ample warning before anyone got close. "I'm glad you thought to bring food. I brought stuff to test powers with, but forgot to bring food." He deserved the compliment. He had sandwiches in little tupperware containers instead of merely shoved in baggies, plus bottled water for us both and even a blanket. So even if the food was basic, he'd tried, and that was more than I'd done.

"My power suggested I pack lunch. So, what stuff did you bring?" James sounded politely curious as he grabbed a fake ham sandwich.

I opted for a dependable PB&J over the questionable pseudo-ham. I took a bite and discovered that the jelly was strawberry; I approved. After a sip of water to clear my palate I answered him. "Well, one thing I want to test that we still don't know for sure: do you have a thinker power that is quantifying things, or is your power granting and/or helping us gain skills."

James sighed, probably thinking of my warning. "I'm pretty sure it's actually improving things, but it would be good to be sure. How would we test it?

I sketched out my plan for using a kitchen scale and an oil drum to approximate our how much we could lift, then we both do strength workouts until we get a stat increases and try again. "And normal people after a workout would have sore muscles. If either of us can lift more…"

"… Then we know that my power helps people get better. That reminds me, how do you want me to spend my points to help you? Vitality to take more damage? Strength to dish it out? Agility to hit things?"

"I don't know how to answer that." Really, I wasn't sure what the points meant. How was I supposed to decide for James? "Right now I'd be tempted to put my points in luck, but there was that thing about it getting harder to get stat increases from practice." With all that had happened, I wasn't sure about the exact wording, but the meaning was clear. "So maybe rather than bump up my luck, I should try to play yahtzee, or poker, or something, and see if I can increase it."

James nodded with eager enthusiasm. "That's probably a good idea. Also, most game systems reward specializing. Your wisdom is probably so high because you're a master, so spending points on your wisdom would probably make you a better master. On the other hand, you don't want your dump stats so low you get penalties."

A few hours of reviewing rule books had obviously not taught me geek-speak. "So a dump stat is my lowest stat?"

He made a wavy gesture with his sandwich free hand. "Well, yes and no. Normally a dump stat is one you purposely let be low so you can spend your limited points on other stats and skills that fit your build better. I didn't choose to have a low wisdom, but the cool thing about my power is that I've been getting wisdom bonuses just for not being an idiot. I probably won't spend points on it since I'm not a master, and it's increasing slowly anyway. I don't think anyone chooses luck as a dump stat. It usually affects everything a little."

That earned him an eye roll. "Can't imagine why."

"Yeah, sorry about that, but anyway, you're probably right about being able to level up your luck easily, judging by my wisdom increases and the vitality bumps that I've gotten since yesterday."

I nodded. "Which lead me to believe your power really is augmenting us. However, I don't like all the guessing. Maybe we should save the points until we have a better idea what the stats really do and how easy they are to raise?"

James grinned. "We'll make a munchkin out of you yet!"

I hated to ask, but… "So what do the little people from Wizard of Oz have to do with anything?"

"A munchkin is someone who games the system. They figure out power combos to take advantage of the rules."

"Right." I tried a fake-ham sandwich. It looked like deviled ham, except it was a darker pink. The texture was off, and it was maybe a little on the sweet side. Not exactly bad, just different. Still better than my father's cooking. If it didn't come out of a box with an attached recipe, he was clueless. I took a sip of water. "So let's put aside spending stat points. I want to test gaining and leveling skills. We both already got way more skills than I expected, but I brought a knife and we can both try stabbing and throwing with it to see if we get a knife skill. Also your danger sense could be awesome, and I wanted to try to level it up, young grasshopper."

"Young grasshopper? Is that a kung-fu movie reference?"

"Yeah, my father likes kung-fu movies and westerns. To get back to the point, I have a stick and a blindfold. You wear the blindfold and use your danger sense to avoid me hitting you with the stick."

James only briefly looked hesitant about me hitting him with a stick, then he embraced the idea. "That's brilliant! I didn't know how to level danger sense safely. I can also check the exp gain to see if it is working."

Note to self, it wasn't just James's power that was weird. "So… in addition to testing leveling up skills, I wanted to test gaining new skills. I brought a fishing knife out of my father's tackle box. We can both try stabbing a target with it to see if we pick up a knife skill. The other thing I thought up was some kind of Stranger ability. I thought we could try sneaking up on each other. We could both use it for different reasons."

"Well in your case, most Masters try to avoid attention. However, it doesn't look like you're going that route. You're a little too shiny."

I held up a hand for him to wait while I chewed my fake ham sandwich. It really wasn't that bad. In fact, compared to some of the things my bugs found delicious, it was downright tasty. "You're partly right. My Lady Bug costume has a -20% to stealth, but things aren't always what they seem." I gave a completely unnecessary wave and my bugs flew off with my cape and hung it black side out up against a nearby wall. "At night, I have my own portable concealment. I've also got this combat map of everything around me in my head. So despite my glittery costume, I can probably do a good job at avoiding attention if I put my mind to it. I still want some kind of stealth. My combat map doesn't do me much good if I stomp around like an elephant."

"Detachable cape, cool. [Inventory]" James poked at the air. "Where did you see the stealth penalty for your costume?"

"Let me check. [Inventory]" I'm sure we looked odd pushing invisible buttons together. "It's at the bottom of my little Barbie doll thing in inventory, in yellow print. Fashion Rating, Impressive. +50% to Reaction Rolls, +25% to Intimidate, -20% to Stealth. Moderate Protection vs. Slashing Damage. Moderate Protection vs. Piercing Damage. Minor Protection vs. Crushing Damage." I swiped my screen closed.

"Wow, that sounds pretty good. I don't see any yellow print. I guess because my clothes give no bonuses."

Or maybe it was because you had to have the Fashion Design skill to see fashion ratings? I didn't really feel like volunteering that. James obviously respected me, and fashion design sounded a bit flakey. However, there was something else that I could offer. "I'll be glad to make you a suit. It won't take half the time it took me to make mine. Most of my time was spent building up a supply of spiders to weave it."

"Wait, you had spiders weave that?"

I grinned. "Yeah. It's mostly spider silk. Black widow dragline spider silk to be precise. If the stuff I've read is correct, it stops bullets better than Kevlar. I haven't had a chance to test it. I've used common house spiders to color the white parts and golden orb spiders spun the breastplates and other bits. I've also used chitin to reinforce the breast, helmet and striking surfaces for my hands."

"Wow… you're a crafter! That's… Yes! Please, make me a set. I still want to see what the bonuses are for the zombie armor, but it will probably take me a while to farm the parts anyway and that's assuming that the blueprints drop to make the other pieces. I'd like something like yours, but could mine be darker? I love the shiny image you're working, but I want something less, um, New Wave."

I grinned. "Darker? Maybe a bit edgy? I think that I've got just the thing for you. Strip away the cosmetic layers of white and gold silk on my suit and you get pure black widow dragline silk, which is a yellowish gray, plus the black widow and chitin sectons which are a mottled gray. It is plenty dark and edgy." Parian had claimed it looked villainous, but I was sure I could make an edgy antihero out of it. "I also had this idea for a mandible looking sections along the jaw line of the mask to give it more of an insectile look. I've got a sketch at home. I'll bring it next time."

[Relationship with James Barron increased!]

"Sounds cool. I'll…" James lost focus for a moment staring at something between us that I couldn't see. "Huh, I just got a quest pop-up. Assemble a costume. I have to obtain a full costume. Doesn't seem to matter how I do it. I just have to get one."

"Oh." I was in the party this time and hadn't received that quest. So that part of his power seemed to be for James only. I felt a bit disappointed, but really it was amazing how much of James's power could be shared. "So what do you get for the quest?"

"For success I get 500 XP and a matching item!"

And James's power goes beyond weird into total bullshit. Why was I even surprised? James had already mentioned crafting armor out of zombie parts. "Matching item?"

"Yeah! If it's like most games it will probably be some minor bit of jewelry with a negligible stat plus on it, like plus one agility or such. If I'm really lucky it will be a matching weapon."

I glanced at the bat that I already regarded as mine. Yeah, his power really did make stuff out of thin air. How easily I had accepted that, but if his power was correct I could multitask a simply ridiculous 10 to the 48th power concurrent operations. Powers were all bullshit in some way. "So does that mean you want to skip power testing and work on your costume quest?"

"What? No." He waved his hand in a gesture I was growing to recognize as dismissing an unseen window. "I'll work on that tonight at home. I want to do power testing first, then maybe try more zombies. I gotta get more drops if I want to make zombie armor."

Somewhere along the way we'd eaten most of the sandwiches. "So about costume design. Best advice I can give you is pick a name first and work towards it." I took a gulp of my water. Something else that I'd let slip my mind. "Also I'm worried about the name of your Illusion Barrier power. What if it is a master effect? What if when we're in an illusion barrier both of us are standing around staring at illusions? That would leave us vulnerable."

"Oh. Yeah. That would be bad. I didn't consider that, but on the other hand my inventory is extradimensional weirdness. So maybe it's a pocket dimension or something."

I nodded my head in agreement. "That would be better. It could even be exploited. It left my bugs out. So if it leaves out people, we could use it to infiltrate. It's not quite teleporting, but you could open up a zone, and we walk inside a building and just appear inside. Or if we get over our head fighting Hookwolf or someone we could use it to run away." And that would be extremely bad to do if it was a Master effect. "So we test it. My bugs gave me a pretty good idea on the range of your zone. It's a bit more than a football field. I'll be outside and can test whether you're standing around staring at nothing or if you vanished into a pocket dimension."

James started laughing. "Taylor, are you sure you don't game much? Because you were born to munchkin. Yeah, if it is a pocket dimension, then we can exploit the hell out of that."

For a moment James's laugh had set me on edge. Lately laughter meant people laughing at me. However, James's laugh was friendly, even admiring. It felt good. "Thanks, but testing first."

Testing out my ideas proved to be mostly boring sprinkled with a few moments of excitement. I'd grown to enjoy running, but lifting weights didn't give me the same kind of charge. It was boring lifting things over and over and over. Still, we stuck with it for an hour until I gained a point of strength. During that time James gained two. My kitchen scale and oil drum test confirmed what we'd both guessed – James's power really did cause improvements. We were both noticeably stronger, James more so than me. He also seemed less tired.

We moved on to beating James with a stick. It worked in a way. James reported small increases to both his [Danger Sense] and [Physical Endurance] skills. However, I didn't turn out like I'd expected. The bamboo pole training thing had been funny to watch in movies. While I wasn't raising a mark on James, hitting him with a stick obviously hurt him. There was nothing funny about it. A quick calculation showed it would take hours of hitting James with a stick for him to gain levels in his skills. I didn't have the stomach for that.

Trying to pick up Stranger abilities was more fun. I sent my bugs to the edge of my range and practiced using a knife on a life preserver while James tried to sneak up on me. That earned me skills in [Knife Mastery], [Knife Throwing], and an unexpected one called [Detect] that gave me bonuses to spotting enemies. Meanwhile, James picked up a [Stealth] skill. We swapped places so we can learn the other skills.

I was a bit disappointed that Stealth wasn't more useful. It only gave a 2% bonus to remaining hidden while stationary and 1% while moving slowly. However, it leveled much faster than [Danger Sense] or [Physical Endurance] so maybe there was hope for it. I also took shameless advantage of my multitasking ability to practice my powers the whole time. I ordered bugs at the edge of my range to fly away for a bit and then come back. This worked and slowly increased both my Master Control Area and Lingering Command skills. I even leveled [Lingering Command] from level 22 to 23 – further proof that James's power could help parahumans improve their own powers.

James suggested we try hand to hand and wanted me to go first because he didn't want to hit a girl. He begged for me to give him my best shot, so I decked him in the face. He'd been asking for it on multiple levels. Maybe I hit him a little too hard, but I picked up a [Brawling] skill out of it. However, he was apparently serious about that chivalry crap and didn't want to hit me back.

I wasn't a raging feminist. It might be nice to have a guy open a door for me sometime. However, training was no time to get chivalrous. Plus what would he do in combat? His only offense was hitting things. Would he not hit Cricket or Rune because they were female? Also we'd need to take things up to sparring sometime soon. I didn't like hitting James with a stick, but sparring would be different. He wouldn't be just standing there and taking it. I wanted to rage at James about this. I wasn't some fragile flower, but… he seemed pretty serious about it. Now wasn't the time for an argument. There were other things to test. I could come back to this later.

While I would have loved to try increasing my luck, I didn't even know I had a luck stat this morning when I put together my training kit. So I didn't know to pack dice or cards. So that had to be postponed for a little while at least. "So… I think we made progress. Ready to test to see if Illusion Barrier is a Master effect or pocket dimension?"

"Sure, you're the boss lady..." He smirked at me. "Make that the boss Lady Bug."


	8. Tutorial 2-4 & 2-5

Tutorial 2.4 & 2.5 were authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. These chapters are reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Tutorial 2.4**

After discussing powers and costumes over lunch Taylor and I got down to power testing and training. It took a few hours, but we now both had [Stealth], [Detect], [Knife Mastery], and [Knife Throwing]. Taylor got [Brawling], but I'm not comfortable hitting her for a skill. Too high of a chance to do serious damage on accident. She probably thought it was (just) a gender thing; I got a relationship loss alert. But more importantly we proved that my power was at least helping us gain skills and stats faster and wasn't just a Thinker power quantifying things. That's going to be so useful, it could paint a real target on my back...

Now we're preparing to test [ID Create]. Taylor thinks it's best that we check and make sure it's not some weird Master effect that leaves us standing around drooling while we fight zombies in our minds. My skill screen wasn't particularly helpful on the subject, but it did let me know that I can currently open a barrier that's either empty, or inhabited by zombies. And that undead summoned during daylight suffer a 25% penalty to level and stats. Taylor's about a hundred twenty yards away, peering around a shipping container to keep an eye on me while I try this solo.

"Ready?" I yell to her.

A pink window appears in front of me, labelled [Taylor Herbert], with an icon of a speaker on it. Taylor's voice comes from it, speaking at a normal volume. "James, you don't have to yell. Voice chat, remember? And I'm ready."

...I didn't think I would forget _that_ fast.

"[ID Create: Zombie]" Left hand in the air, right hand clutching my bright pink baseball bat, I face the horde. And I do mean horde. After the tutorial trip into the Illusion Barrier, I really wasn't expecting more than four or five zombies. There's a small crowd of [Zombie, Level 6] in front of me, and I expect there have to be more around, behind containers and such. With this many zombies in plain sight, I'm not taking any risks. I charge the nearest one.

"Good news, James. You disappeared." I trip over my feet as I get a sudden reminder we've still got voice chat active. I have _got_ to train my AGI up. "It looks like you really do make a pocket dimension instead of an illusion."

I hop to my feet as fast as I can. "That's good to know. [Power Strike]" The strike knocks a baseball cap off the nearest zombie and leaves a serious dent in the side of his head, but only takes off about a fifth of his health. It almost knocks him over as well. "Looks like there's about ten zombies right here." My MP is still over six hundred, so I can spare a little to finish him before the others get too close.

"Ten zombies? Get out of there!" Taylor's worry feels a touch insulting. I'm 50% higher level than I was when I took out two at once.

I try to reassure her. "I just leveled, so I've got a bit more HP and MP to work with. And I want to see if I can find more teeth." Maybe I'll get lucky and find another blueprint.

It takes five more [Power Strikes], and one normal hit, for him to die. [97 XP] The whole time I can hear Taylor over the voice chat muttering about "stubborn boy" and "4 WIS".

That's not fair. "It's seven now!" Four of the other corpses are a bit closer than I like now and two new zombies have shuffled into view from behind me. On the plus side, I've got an alert that [Power Strike has leveled up!] I turn and sprint at the nearer of the two new enemies, hoping to get some space before the loose circle around me closes.

"And my fifty-nine is telling me to tell you to get out of there!"

"I've got this!" This time my starting [Power Strike] catches a businesswoman zombie right in the floating ribs. A quick spin and I'm not only outside the ring of undead, I'm behind her. One of the 'busy-signal' alert indicators starts flashing. If I've learned anything from tactical RPGs…

"[Power Strike]" and a back-attack (to the head) should give me good odds on a…

[Critical Hit!]

With only a sliver of HP to go, I take my chance to get the [Brawling] skill, and punch her in the kidney with a rapidly-freed left fist. The good news is I've got another indicator blinking now, so I probably did get it. On the down side, it actually takes two punches to finish her. ([97 XP]) And by that time, I'm surrounded by a mass of stinking, scratching corpses.

"Fuck." [Danger!]

"What?!" Taylor doesn't sound happy.

This is not the time to be talking, though. "Hold on!" A little impatience leaks into my tone. I'm probably burning MP a little faster than I should, but I can't stop while surrounded. [Power Strikes] flow from my mighty pink bat, even as blow after blow catches me from angles I've got no chance to defend against. And they hit _hard_. Things kinda blur together in a brawl like this...

I run out of MP with only two enemies left. Neither of them is in perfect shape, but I'm down to 32/220 HP, and Pinkie is looking a little rough. Three or four more hits and Taylor will find out what happens if someone dies in an Illusion Barrier. ...or maybe I'll just never reappear… Fuck that. I just have to play it safe and focus on taking them out one at a time. I take a moment to reassure Taylor. "Told you. Just two left."

"Just be careful, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Careful mode on." I hate this kind of moment in action RPGs, kiting enemies for five or six minutes because you can't afford to take a hit. And the whole time I've got half-a-dozen or so alerts waiting for me, blinking away. Hell, it takes long enough that I regenerate enough MP to finish off the last zombie, a decaying cowboy, with one last [Power Strike] to the face.

Of course, this is when I realize all the noise has drawn three or four more _groups_ of zombies. They aren't exactly on me yet, but they're close enough I can't make a break for it. No. Nope. Not a chance. I drop to the ground and sweep up what loot is in easy reach. I have to leave a few soul shards and a tooth, and I think I saw a rib over where I got the first zombie, but I'm out of time. "[ID Escape]!" The world shatters, and I find myself staring up at an unimpressed Taylor.

...I half-expected another WIS boost for knowing when to cut my loses...

A wave of alerts blocks view.

[Due to an act of noteworthy dexterity, AGI has increased by 1]

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to fight without weapons, [Brawling], has been created.]  
[Brawling (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 2.3%]  
[Allows the user to freely fight unarmed. Passively increases unarmed attack speed and power by 3%. When replaced by a martial arts skill 25% of earned experience will carry over.]  
[Rabbit punch! Eye gouge! Groin stomp! There's no such thing as a fair fight, just whoever is left standing.]

[Sense Danger's level goes up by one!] [Blunt Weapon Mastery's level goes up by two!] [Power Strike's level goes up by one!] [Due to diligent effort, your STR has increased by 2!] [Due to diligent effort, your VIT has increased by 1!] [You've gained 1 level.]

I dismiss them as quickly as I read them, which is pretty damn fast, if I do say so myself. "Okay, so you may have been right about not taking them on solo," I admit magnanimously.

"MAY have been right?" Taylor has her hands on her hips, a stance I'm all too familiar with from my sister - angry teenaged girl. "MAY have been right? You could have just left and come back with me in the party. You _just_ made me the boss. That makes me responsible if you get yourself killed! Do you know what it was like for me just standing here listening to that? Do you-"

Taylor brakes off her rant midstream to focus on something I can't see. "Huh. I just got an [Intimidate] skill."

The only surprising thing about Taylor receiving the [Intimidate] skill is "You didn't already have that?"

 **Tutorial 2.5**

I don't think Taylor appreciated my smartass comment about her being intimidating. But she just takes a moment before replying, "James, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come down on you so hard. I was just stuck out here, listening to that. You could have been seriously injured or even killed in there, and I would have had no way to reach you. Just never leave me out again, okay?"

Fuck. She's right. "Yeah, my bad. No more stupid risky solo battles." It'd be too much to assume I've got spare lives hidden in my power somewhere.

"So... Yeah." She looked down, then back up and smiled awkwardly. "Let's go kick some zombie butt! Open up another barrier for both of us!"

Despite that little moment Taylor still seems somewhat upset. Thankfully, she's quite adept at taking out her anger on zombies after I open a new [Illusion Barrier]. I'm not sure if she's intentionally grinding [Rising Strike], or if she's multitasking and much more upset than I thought, but a suspicious number of male zombies take bat blows a bit lower than optimal for a lifting blow. On top of that wince-worthy bit of ruthlessness, every single corpse has a modest damage over time, or DoT, effect on them as she orders their own maggots to eat them from the inside out. So glad she's not targeting me. And we're sharing XP evenly, even if she's getting most of the killing blows. It only takes half an hour or so for me to level up twice. Not to mention the skill and stat alert indicators stacking up in the corner of my vision. The only upside to low stats is how easy it is to level them at first. Even with Taylor entangling some of them in the nets that used to be her skirts, the downside is literally crouching behind Taylor to catch my breath while she launches away all approaching undead for a few minutes. It helps that when I level I don't just get a sudden boost to HP and MP, but also get a sudden wave of energy, wiping away my fatigue.

As soon as there is a lull in combat all the updates swarm my face. A few skill upgrades, a few stats too. And I finally got [Dodge]. Thankfully, [Gamer's Body] seems to be staving off muscle fatigue, so I'm back up fairly quickly. Taylor's finally slowing down. Crazy VIT or not, swinging a bat for this long has to be tiring work for her too. Another [Finishing Blow], almost slow enough for the prone zombie in scuba gear to roll away from, finishes the last of the zombies right by us.

I guess now's as good a time as any, and I need a break to heal. "[ID Esca-] Crap. Loot." Taylor is clearly distracted by her own alert windows. I hope she got something good. If she hadn't thinned the herd a lot, and seriously weakened all the zombies still in range I wouldn't even try this. But I guess it's my turn to hold them off if I don't want to abandon our earnings. And I think I see another rib dropped over there. I want my pauldron, okay? It's bad enough I left one earlier…

It brings my health down more than I like, and dries up my stores of MP, but I hold off until Taylor rejoins the fray. And suddenly she's two shotting them half the time. Even with the calls of "[Power Strike]", guess she just unlocked that, she's doing too much damage. Did she level and spend points on STR or something? A lot more zombies are making it to me now, almost like she's letting them get past. At least it only takes one hit to… oh… I wonder why she's feeding me kills?

Another half hour, another level, and another break later I find out how she did it. And why she's been letting me finish off most of our foes.

[Apprentice Undead Hunter]  
[Obtained by killing any 50 undead.]  
[You have a special talent and interest in exterminating the undead!]  
[Become an Undead Hunter and eradicate the undead!]

[30% increase in attack damage against the undead.]  
[30% increase in defense versus the undead.]  
[All stats plus 5 while facing the undead.]

Yeah, that'd do it. I equip it immediately and jump back to it. ...holy shit, 30% is huge! I'm getting in the occasion three-hit kill now. ...and I seem to be getting my dumb ass surrounded less often. How the fuck did I survive this long with my WIS so low?! And it'll drop back as soon as I'm not facing undead. I still don't want to spend points on a stat when it should be easy to grind at this time, but I'm not leaving my WIS so low for such a petty reason.

[A sagacious decision causes your WIS to go up by 2.]

...that probably means my power agrees. A lot. It also suddenly makes sense to gather loot between waves of enemies, instead of waiting for the last minute to scramble to grab what few pieces I can get.

You know your life is getting surreal when fighting zombies gets boring. But few things are fun for almost four hours straight. Even breaking my trusty pink bat over the tin pail one zombie had on its head just means I switch to [Brawling]. Back to four or more hits per kill, but the visceral satisfaction is enough to make things interesting again for a few minutes.

Taylor casts her skirt-nets at the nearest zombies and turns to me. "Here, take it." She's offering me her bat. "You need it more than me."

"I'm fine. I can…" There's no need to be stubborn, just find a different solution. "Fuck it, you still got that knife?" A half-foot blade beats the heck out of going in unarmed. She quickly hands me the knife just before we get swarmed again.

Leveling for a fourth time leaves me physically restored, but mentally I need a break. I'm pretty much done with this for the day. Night soon enough. And I didn't pack us supper.

Fortunately, as the sun grazes the top of the city to our west, Taylor comes to a sudden stop. "That's level 14 for me. Let's call it a day."

My hand is in the air before she even finishes her sentence. "[ID Escape]" I'm not sure if it's the sunset, or just how long we were in there for, but the sky shattering yet again is unspeakably gorgeous. Shards of impossibly clear crystal fall through the pink and orange evening air, refracting beautifully.

"[Status Screen] Let's see… [+1 STR], [+1 AGI], [+3 Dodge], [+4 Blunt Weapon Mastery], [+3 Rising Strike], [+2 Combat Mapping], [+2 Entangle], and [+2 Finishing Blow]." Taylor isn't even looking at the sky. She's missing something amazing. "I've got [Power Strike] now, it's already level 2, and [Light Armor Mastery], which is at 3. And [Apprentice Undead Hunter], but I guess you got that too?"

"Yeah, and let me say, an extra 5 points of WIS really shows off how much I need to get more. Did I really stab myself with a plastic fork in the middle of Fugly Bob's?"

Taylor snickers. "Yes. Yes, you did." She hastily refocuses the conversation. "Not bad for an afternoon's work. What else did you get?"

"Let's see… [Status Screen] [+3 STR], [+1 AGI], [+1 VIT], [+2 WIS], [+3 Power Strike], [+2 Dodge], [+2 Physical Resistance], [+1 Brawling], [+2 Knife Mastery], [+3 Blunt Weapon Mastery], [+1 Sense Danger] and that title. And I'm level 8 now. Holy crap, my HP and MP nearly doubled…"

Okay, now I'm the one distracted from the sunset. With my very lifeforce strictly quantified, seeing that number nearly double has me almost numb with glee. Not gonna die from a papercut no more. And it looks like my regeneration is a little faster now. Looks like it takes about 4 and a half seconds per HP recovered. So it should take about… 40 minutes to fully recover from almost dead.

"Have you noticed how much faster our skills go up in combat?" Taylor asks, placing her bat reverently into her bag. "I know we were in there for hours, but we didn't improve half as fast just training."

Maybe it's my improved WIS score, but she's right. "Some games do that. More experience when you actually do something. Like hitting an enemy versus hitting a target." Too bad some of our skills aren't well-suited to practicing in combat. [Stealth] should be awesome at higher levels, but the zombie horde isn't going to let up enough for us to try sneaking up on them.

Packing up is quick and easy with an inventory, and I don't even have to struggle with backpack straps. Taylor has it worse, but it only takes her a moment to duck out of sight and change back to her civvies. We exit the Ship's Graveyard and head inland in a comfortable silence, both flipping through our various screens, exploring the changes one day had wrought. Looks like I've got 23 [Soul Shards], 11 [Teeth of the Dead], 3 [Ribs of the Dead], and one [Skin of the Dead] total. I should be able to make an [Undead Pauldron] now.

I'm not putting any thought into making sure Taylor gets home… well, 'safe' is an over-statement. She can certainly take care of herself, but she still doesn't need to be hassled.

Oh, hey, this is the way to my house! "I live this way too," I comment, feeling the need to share.

Taylor nods, "Well, we did go to the same elementary. We can't live that far apart."

"I'll pack supper as well tomorrow. Better to have it just in case." While I'm thinking ahead, I wonder if I can get more WIS by… "It's dark out. I should be wearing white for safety. My costume shouldn't show any skin, as extra identity protection. We should try to learn each other's skills. I should get a cellphone. We should try and get a first aid skill. I should find a replacement weapon since my bat broke, and I can't borrow your knife all the time. I should get a sturdier weapon, so it doesn't break again." No good. "Hmph."

"What's wrong?" Taylor has apparently been listening the whole time, staring at me bemusedly.

"I was trying to grind WIS by having good ideas." And _that_ had seemed like such a good idea. "None of them counted."

"Well, you did have a point about the costume. I can give you a spare ski mask I had my spiders weave," she offers, "but if you're trying to hide skin, don't forget around your eyes. Goggles or wrap-around sunglasses can hold you over until you find something better. Have you put any thought into your name yet?"

I haven't really, but I'm quick on my feet. "Nothing solid yet, but since we're working together it should match or compliment your theme. Something with insects and nobility or knighthood. But not 'Sir Bugsalot'."

"Please don't get too attached to any name before you run it past me, okay? It took me a few months to pick one I didn't hate the next day." She dips her head a little. "I can't believe I almost called myself Buzz. And planned on wearing bright yellow with black stripes. Go ahead and make something for now, get an idea for what works for you. Later, I can introduce you to Parian. She did most of the design work on my costume."

"Parian? Really?" I'm not big on fashion, what the rogue cape does is more like art in a fabric medium. And by all rumors, she does it all without compromising wearability. "No wonder. And thanks. Really."

Taylor tilts her head up and adopts a faux-snotty tone. "I am the Lady Bug. I can't have my partner running around in sweats and hockey mask, now can I?"

I chuckle out an agreement. "Fair enough."

"On the subject of preparations, we need a cover story. I'm not ready to tell Dad I've got powers, let alone that I'm fighting zombies with them."

"Oh, bugger." I don't want to tell anyone in my family for as long as possible. Mom's… not particularly accepting of Parahumans. Half the time she talks about capes like they're reckless, exhibitionistic adrenaline junkies. The other half it's more 'burn the witch'. While I'm sure Pa'd have some great advice, he's a pushover who'd let Mom know in a matter of days. Rene doesn't need the extra stress while she's pursuing a dual major in foreign languages and parahuman psychology. I think she's interested in the rumored International Protectorate Initiative. And less said about what Andy would do with the knowledge I have powers, the better. Maybe after I've made contact with the Wards.

Taylor's comment about zombies gives me an idea though… "Why don't you tell your dad we're playing Dungeons and Dragons?" It wouldn't work for me, D&D is just another thing Mom can't stand. "If you ever slip up and mention undead or controlling bugs or anything you can just say it's from the game."

[A good idea causes your WIS to go up by 1.]

Taylor doesn't look convinced yet. "My power approves. I got my tenth point in wisdom for that one."

"Well, it's better than not having a plan." There's a minute of less comfortable silence before Taylor gestures at a well-worn house a few drives down. "So that's my house over there. My father is already inside. I appreciate you walking me home, but I'd rather not introduce you to my father right now. Strange boy, teenaged daughter..."

"Hey! It's not like that. I mean, I'm certainly strange, but…" Aaand now I probably sound like an asshole. "Not that you're not-"

"Stop now. Before you put your foot in your mouth. I know you're not, but I haven't had friends in so long. New strange boy, he'll jump to conclusions. Let me bring you up in conversation first, make my father aware you exist first."

Thank you for stopping me. "Right. That's a good idea."

There's a brief pause. "So… tomorrow, same time, same place?" Taylor offers.

A familiar quest window pops up, but I carefully ignore it. If her dad is looking, he doesn't need to see some unfamiliar man jabbing a finger towards his little girl. There's only one proper response, though. "It's a quest."

"Right." She doesn't seem to find it funny. "See-ya."

I jog off, mostly because leaving slowly feels like sticking around, and sticking around is just awkward. I'm actually only a few streets from my place. It's surprising to find out we've lived so close for years, but barely know each other. I don't have time to think about it though, as I'm already home.

With Rene home for the weekend, the family seems to be all in the living room watching a movie. Good, that should distract them. I don't need to be dodging everyone as I gather materials for my costume. I pull up the quest alert I've had shelved all day.

[New Quest Alert: My First Costume]  
[Pick your parahuman code name and construct a costume to match by tomorrow morning.]  
[Goal time: 10 AM Sunday]  
[Reward: 500 XP and a matching piece of equipment]  
[Failure: Increased chance of being outed as a parahuman]

I figure I'll start by putting together the best costume I can with what I've got on hand, and think of names while I'm at it. I'll want my outfit to be as dark as possible, so I start by digging black clothes out of my dresser and closet. Okay, black jeans are good. Dark grey velcro sneakers are my best option for shoes. For now at least. Knit winter gloves will have to do. ...I don't have any long-sleeved black shirts, and I have no intention of leaving even my arms exposed in costume. What to do? I pull a too-large navy turtle out and size it up. My arms have always been a bit long, so this otherwise oversized shirt has the perfect size sleeves. I can just rip the seams and switch the sleeves. It won't be pretty, but it's just a starter costume. I can clean it up later.

"Dumbass, what are you doing?"


	9. Party Invite 2-3

Beta by Faria Lyton.

* * *

 **Party Invite 2.3**

"So that's my house over there." I waved toward my home with a vague feeling of embarrassment at how run-down it was. The paint was peeling in places; the weed-filled yard hadn't been mowed in a while; and the bushes were overgrown. At least the front step wasn't visibly broken. "My father is already inside. I appreciate you walking me home, but I'd rather not introduce you to my father right now. Strange boy, teenaged daughter…" Hopefully James could connect the dots.

James did. "Hey! It's not like that. I mean, I'm certainly strange, but… Not that you're not-"

"Stop now. Before you put your foot in your mouth. I know you're not, but I haven't had friends in so long. New boy, he'll jump to conclusions. Let me bring you up in conversation first, make my father aware you exist first."

"Right. That's a good idea."

This felt awkward. While James had walked me home, that was only because my house was on the way to his. We'd talked and discussed ideas, nothing more. Not that I would have minded a bit of chivalry between friends even though it was totally unnecessary. It was just hard saying good-bye to a _friend_ after not having one since Emma. "So… tomorrow, same time, same place?"

James smirked. "It's a quest." His eyes didn't track an unseen message nor did he poke the air, so he probably thought he was being funny.

"Right. See-ya." I headed toward my home while tasking my bugs to track James until he was out of my range. Today had been a great day. Better even than meeting Parian. James's power was weird, but awesome. I'd gained so much today: valuable skills that would make me a better cape, a new title, and ten points to spend on stats from leveling twice. Fighting zombies was great practice for the real thing. It also had been surprisingly fun. Once we'd found our rhythm it had been cathartic to beat the crap out of legions of zombies. While my muscles were pleasantly tired, I felt almost giddy.

I hopped over the broken step and stepped inside. "Hi Dad, I'm home."

From my bugs I already knew that I would find my father on the couch watching TV. My friendly flies also let me know that he was working on his second beer and the first lay crushed in the trash bin in the kitchen. A glance at the TV told me that he was watching a Western. It looked vaguely familiar, so he was probably rewatching one of his favorites. There was a pile of paperwork beside him. This was a habit of his. Some of the paperwork was so routine he'd fill it out while watching TV.

He smiled at me. "Evening kiddo. You're looking chipper. Did you have a good day?"

I joined him in the living room and plopped on the arm of the couch. "Yeah, I did. Paris introduced me to some friends of hers and we hung out." Paris was a pretend friend that I'd made up when going to meet Parian. Now to try out the story that James had thought up. "You ever heard of Dungeons and Dragons? It's this game and they invited me to play tomorrow. They made it sound fun. They were talking about a dungeon full of zombies and stuff."

My father chuckled. "Really, D&D? I haven't heard about that since college. Not my thing, but if you want to give it a try, go for it."

"Really? Thanks." Not that Dad paid much attention to my comings and goings, or cared if I was going out other than to make sure I had my pepper spray, but permission was good. Even better, he'd accepted the cover story of a gaming group. That would make it easier to meet up with James to train, and provide a good cover in case I ever made a verbal slip-up.

"So have you eaten any dinner?" I knew he hadn't. My flies smelled no recent food smells in the kitchen.

"No, I was just going to nuke something."

I was tempted to agree and just nuke something for myself as well. I was still in a party with James, and time spent cooking could be better used leveling my skills. However, I wanted something more than a frozen TV dinner. Fighting zombies was hungry work. "Don't. I'll cook something."

Throughout my conversation with my father a part of me was busy calling in my spiders scattered around the neighborhood and setting them to work in our basement. I paid Parian for her consulting work on my costume in golden orb spider silk. She'd used some for her own costume, but she also was looking to market it and thought it would sell well. She was offering me 50/50 on any future sales. Nothing had materialized yet, but money wouldn't hurt. More importantly James needed a costume, so I had my black widows weaving silk as well. I'd need to get his measurements eventually, but it wasn't critical at this step.

A quick check of the fridge and the pantry, and I found we had the ingredients for spaghetti and a salad. I wasn't not a great cook, but I could manage that. Besides, the hamburger needed to be eaten soon or it would go bad and become bug food. As I was setting the food on the table I was suddenly flooded with a swarm of pop-ups.

[A skill has been created by repeated action.]  
[A skill to create meals from raw ingredients, [Cooking] has been created.]  
[Cooking (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 4.1%]  
[By the combination of raw ingredients tasty meals can be created. Eating food can restore The Gamer's HP and MP. Higher quality meals restore more of both. Meals created out of special ingredients can provide short term stat bonuses and/or buffs.]  
[ _Healthy foods are good for you._ ]

[You have unlocked the Blueprints tab.]

[A recipe has been learned by experimentation.]  
[Recipe: Spaghetti]  
[Rank: Low]  
[A pasta dish with a mild tomato sauce.]

[A recipe has been learned by experimentation.]  
[Recipe: Garden Salad]  
[Rank: Low]  
[A salad composed mostly of leafy vegetables such as lettuce.]

[An item has been created via [Cooking].]  
[Spaghetti]  
[Rank: Low; Type: Consumable Item]

[An item has been created via [Cooking].]  
[Garden Salad]  
[Rank: Low; Type: Consumable Item]

So… that just happened. Having proof that James's skill worked at a distance and still gave me skills was nice, but at times it took things beyond weird to just plain silly. Although the part about bonuses for special foods was interesting. Did that mean if I leveled up my cooking high enough I could be some kind of weird food tinker? While James was just a voice chat away, that would out us both as capes and was only for emergencies. I'd have to wait until tomorrow to discuss it with him. So I pushed it aside for now. "Dad, dinner's ready."

My father's arrival started a wonderful family dinner of spaghetti, salad, lies and guilt. He wanted to know about the gaming group. I made James into the game master and specifically mentioned that he was someone that I'd known for years. When pressed for other names, to my undying shame I mentioned Greg Veder and Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables as a members of the group. Both of whom I was able to describe in sufficient detail to settle my father's curiosity. Fortunately my father never read Anne of Green Gables and didn't know that I wouldn't even ask my bugs to crawl over Greg Veder if I could help it.

Having satisfied my father's curiosity I was able to finish my low rank spaghetti and salad without further questions. That gave me some time to think about what I wanted to train tonight. There were skills I wanted to acquire that I didn't have yet. First aid and some kind of ranged weapon were on the top of that list. There were also skills I needed to improve. I had bugs working on four of my skills constantly: [Mental Control Area], [Lingering Command], [Sense Processing], and [Combat Mapping]. I also needed to improve my other skills, but we'd learned from fighting zombies that most skills leveled much faster through combat. There were other things I could work on tonight, but the one that stood out the most was luck.

So as we cleared away the dishes I asked my father a seemingly innocent question. "You know with all that talk about games today, I was thinking… do we still have those old boardgames in the hall closet?"

Dad smiled. "I'm sure we do. Are you going to scavenge them for dice?"

"No, well maybe, but that's not why I was asking. I was thinking maybe we could play a game. That is if your paperwork can keep."

"Kiddo that sounds like a great idea." My father's smile was more than fond indulgence or faked interest this time. It was that smile I remembered from when I was younger, the daddy smile. "Of course, the paperwork can wait."

[Relationship with Danny Hebert increased!]

There were several old games in the closet that depended heavily luck: Monopoly, Life, Risk and Parcheesi to name a few, I dug out the box labelled Yahtzee. The game was fairly simple and almost entirely based in luck, which made it perfect for my purposes. Since my luck was zero it should be easy to train.

Except it wasn't. I had the worst game of Yahtzee ever. On my first five rolls I ended up with 2 in my ones box, 4 in my twos box, 10 in my three-of-a-kind box, and 16 in my chance box after failing to complete a small straight off a 3-4-5 in two rolls. Meanwhile my father had booked his threes, fours and a full house. I wasn't a math whiz, but my luck wasn't just bad, it was terrible and it continued roll after roll. Only after I'd used up my ones box, chance, and three of kind, did I roll triple 1s on my first roll, which did not grow to a Yahtzee or a four-of-a-kind. I took a zero in my Yahtzee box. Next roll – triple 2s, also already blocked. My luck wasn't just bad, I was rolling the worst possible rolls that I could get. It was a statistically anomaly that my rolls were so bad. The implications were scary. While I've had some bad luck in the past, I could only believe that James's power had decided to apply my 0 LUK to random events as some kind of anti-luck. That could be real bad.

Initially Dad teased me light-heartedly at my bad rolls, but as the game progressed he started to wince every time I rolled the dice. "You know Taylor, you could just concede."

I forced a lame laugh out. "It's just a game," I said, but one bad roll followed another. It wasn't just a game any longer. I really did have no luck.

Rattle. Roll. 2-3-4-5-6. "Large Straight!"

[Fortune has smiled upon you, LUK has increased by 1]

"Large Straight! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

My father laughed. "I take it you didn't zero that one out yet?"

"No it's still open." I marked a forty down in my large straight box.

I still lost, of course. I was much too far behind to possibly catch up, but I'd done it. I'd improved my luck! I wheedled my father into playing a few more games and managed two more checks giving me 3 LUK in total. More importantly the anti-luck effect had eased up. I still lost every game to my father, but not as badly. The dice no longer seemed to actively hate me; they just didn't like me very much. Given that four games of Yahtzee still took less than an hour, I thought that was great progress.

"Taylor, I think I've had enough Yahtzee. How about we play something else?"

I mentally reviewed the games I had to choose from. Which one involved more luck? They all had varying degrees of strategy. "How about Risk?" That had a strategic element, but attacking and defending was all luck.

"Okay, we can play Risk."

Two hours of Risk only netted me one additional skill check, a double-six on defense vs. my father's 6-6-4 attack. My luck was still clearly bad, but not painfully bad. I found myself growing more and more annoyed at the game. I could level so many skills up faster fighting zombies. Yahtzee, as boring as it was, had at least leveled my luck faster. Risk was a waste of valuable time.

As my father's armies marched across the board taking over the world, I found my thoughts drifting. James's power was weird, but there seemed to be certain underlying rules. I clearly still had bad luck and James's power had somehow made my luck worse by affecting what should be completely random dice rolls. It really shouldn't come as a surprise that having James's breaker effect apply to me came with some disadvantages. From what I'd read that was pretty common with breaker states. All in all the advantages made up for the disadvantages. Being on Murphy's bad side wasn't really anything new to me.

After losing at Risk I retreated to my bedroom, but was too keyed up to go to sleep. I figured out how to swap my titles around. [Unaffiliated Parahuman] wasn't much use. It granted a +20% to reaction rolls from 'fellow rogues', even though I wasn't a rogue. [Novice Hero] was more interesting. It helped me gain skills and stats 10% faster. That would have been handy when I was trying to raise my luck. For that matter it was probably more useful than [Apprentice Undead Hunter]. That title helped me kill zombies faster, but faster wasn't necessarily better. It was the skills I wanted. Those would help me survive more in the real world. So I immediately switched my title over.

Still not sleepy I decided to play around with my multitasking talent. I was already exploiting it to train [Mental Control Area], [Lingering Command], [Combat Mapping] and [Sense Processing] almost constantly. Experience gain was slower out of combat, but maybe I could make up for it by doing multiple things at once. I settled for singing along with music on some of my favorite CD, while playing Yahtzee solo with my left hand, while reading the D&D Players Handbook for ideas with my eyes, while taking notes in code to practice my cryptography.

Two hours of effort netted me some skills: [Singing], [+1 INT], [+1 Mental Control Area], and [+2 Cryptography], but overall it was a failure. No LUK, and not much progress. There was only so much that I could physically do at once. Maybe if I got some kind of tinker heads-up display that would let me read six things at once, learned braille, or suddenly figured out how to see through my bugs, I could do more, but right now I was limited.

Oh well, it wasn't like I was planning my hero debut tomorrow anyway. I needed to get James up to speed now. He wasn't ready for prime time yet. He needed to improve his skills, develop new ones, and he certainly needed a real costume. If it took the better part of a day to collect the parts for one set of pauldrons, it would take a while for James to assemble his own outfit. I'd pretty much used up all my silk to make my own costume, so I was a couple of weeks from making one for James. Plus, I wanted to introduce him to Parian. Plenty of time to build up my own skills yet before we made our debut. Hmm, probably the Merchants. I'd rather not piss off Empire Eighty-Eight or the ABB on our first night out.

* * *

A/N: Yahtzee is a common dice game in the US, but goes by different names in other countries. I've been advised by readers outside the US that this chapter is difficult to follow without knowledge of the game. I tried to write this section so that an understanding of the rules was not needed, but full rules are available on the internet if it helps.


	10. Tutorial 2-6

Tutorial 2.6 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Tutorial 2.6**

Simply sharing a room with a little brother would suck. Sharing a room with my _younger_ brother, who's already pushing six feet at age 13 (and a half), completely blows. Seriously. I'm getting _his_ hand-me-downs now. And he's such a little snitch. Or something that rhymes with it.

"What are you doing with my shirt?" Andy's got a rather deep voice for his age. I'm not sure how much of it is him faking it and how much is just part of hitting the puberty jackpot. He'd almost be intimidating if I hadn't just spend the day fighting zombies alongside a cape who could pull off calling herself Pestilence if she wanted.

We've had this conversation before. "Dude, your shoulders don't fit in it anymore. Mom passed it to me six months ago. _You_ said I could have it the last time I wore it, two months ago."

"Whatever. Just changing into pajamas early so Mom will let me stay up to watch that Earth Aleph movie with the trippy dreams." Ah, the little shit's just marking territory again. And he's already gone to change in the bathroom. Usually it takes even longer than this to get him to drop it when he's fishing for a reminder that he's taller than me and that half my clothes were his within the last year. I'm not short, but it's enough to give a guy a complex.

I don't know how long the movie is, but an hour and a half is a good rule of thumb. So I need to hurry. Suit, armor, and a name… I can do this.

In the end it takes me just over two hours to cobble something not quite entirely unwearable together. Whatever the movie is, it's still going. I have to leave a few pieces in the garage to dry overnight, but it's unlikely anyone else will go in there on a Sunday morning. Looks like I'm in the clear. And exhausted. Too bad I can't actually sleep until Andy goes to bed.

..ooOoo..

Taylor's in nearly the exact same spot as she was last time. I'm a few minutes earlier than last time, partially because all the running is doing amazing things for my VIT, and partially because I need to finish my quest before ten. That's under two minutes from now. I'm cutting it close, but I can finish it in time. "Do you have the mask? My quest won't complete, and I think it's because the costume isn't complete." She hands over the yellowish grey balaclava and I greedily pull it over my face. "Inventory"

A few quick swipes equip my Black Jeans, Blue/Black Franken-Shirt, Black Knit Gloves, and Grey Velcro Shoes quickly replace the more colorful clothes I'd been wearing a moment ago. Now for the more costume-y parts. One at a time, the remaining items appear on top of my clothes. Brown Soccer Shinguards, Brown Scavenged Tin Greaves, Brown Scavenged Tin Chest Plate, Enveloping Shades, and finally the unimpressive Brown Antenna'd BMX Helmet. It's not pretty, but it's not bad for only having one night to work on it.

"I couldn't find any black spray paint, and the helmet is crap, but it's a start." Taylor doesn't look quite as unimpressed as I expected. The chest-plate seems to have drawn her attention. Hmm, no quest completion... I've only got a few seconds left when I realize what I still need to do, "Meet Beetle Knight!"

"Wait, what?"

00:00:04  
Quest Completed!  
You have gained 500 XP and a piece of Beetle Knight equipment

A decent-size cardboard box appears on the ground in front of me. "Beetle Knight. I thought it worked well as an 'insect medieval' theme. And I like the sound of it. Lady Bug. Beetle Knight. Get it?" I miss her reaction as I'm busy ripping the box open. There's a head-sized black object wrapped in packing foam and five smaller boxes. Okay, it's a helmet. Glossy black, two big eye lenses, stylized fang/mandibles, a section of vents over the nose and mouth, and an oddly shaped hole in the upper forehead.

"Okay, it's not bad. The name works well with Lady Bug and gives us a shared theme. Give me time and I'll get a spider silk under-suit made to go under your armor. Also, Parian might have some ideas that work with the name. That hole looks… like it could be a problem," she waffled.

"Let's see what's up with that. Observe"

Unsocketed Beetle Knight Helmet  
Type: Equipment; Quality: Epic  
An unnaturally hard helmet given to the Beetle Knight to protect his head and identity. Comes with five interchangeable attachments for different situations. None is attached at this time.

"One moment…" I dig into the largest of the remaining boxes. A pair of curved horns with a slight split towards each tip, also in glossy black, clears the packaging. "Observe"

Stag Beetle Augment  
Type: Augment; Quality: Rare  
A pair of stag beetle horns made to be socketed to the [Beetle Knight Helmet]. Provides a +5% boost to AGI while equipped.

Sure enough, it slides right into place. "It's got a few different add-ons. This one gives an extra five percent to AGI." The other boxes contain similar items. Goliath Beetle Augment has a large, long bottom horn and a top horn forming a kind of sideways jaw and gives a small boost to STR. Three long horns forming an upside down triangle with a bare stub of a horn between make up the Atlas Beetle Augment, which boosts VIT. There's no boost from the Firefly Augment but the tiny antenna come with a headlamp built-in. The last augment, Golden Scarab, looks kinda like a pair of bent antenna that bulb out towards the ends. For +5% LUK, it's well worth it for Illusion Barriers, even if apparently also turns my entire outfit gold while equipped. I'll probably look like a half-assed armored Scion knockoff if I ever wear it around people.

"That's way better than the one you're wearing. Why don't you try it on?" Taylor's fragile smile seems to be physically pained.

Admittedly the helmet I pieced together last night is awful. I think the thing's a little small. A few flicks of my finger later I'm adjusting to the feel of having a pair of pincers on top of my head.

"Yes, much better. I like that helm. If you can get a full set like that you won't need help from me or Parian. That reminds me - did the pauldrons look bad?"

Novice Hero  
Obtained by finding your heroic spirit.  
You are just beginning on your journey as a hero!  
Become a Hero and save the world!

10% increase in exp gain for stats  
10% increase in exp gain for skills  
Only available to level 25

"Haven't made it yet. Just earned a title. I'm a Novice Hero now. Gimme a sec." Equipping a title the first time didn't seem to make any obvious changes. Maybe it's just the difference between the two, but I can _feel_ my hatred for the undead subside a little, replaced by an equivalent increase in my drive to excel as a hero. "That's… really weird feeling. Definitely using this one for a bit, though." Some basic math has shown me that I get more out of each level up if I already have higher VIT and INT. So a little focus on stats over damage should be a good thing for now. "That's useful."

Taylor nods, "Especially for me. I swapped back to Novice Hero last night. All I get from leveling is a few stat points, which I plan to save until it becomes harder to earn stat levels."

"Well, it does make more sense to use your rare candies at level 90 than at level 9." I don't think she gets the reference, but she nods along anyway. I'd explain, but I don't want to start my life as a Cape by acting like Uber and L33t. That would be a bad omen. "We've got a few levels on the zombies now. How about we try training our skills a little, maybe try and fill in our skill lists. I kinda want Rising Strike and Finishing Blow, and I'm sure-"

"I want Physical Resistance," she interrupts with a great deal of certainty. There's a brief pause. "...and Grounding Strike. Give me a moment to change into my costume." She blushes. "Be right back."

Girls. Even an insta-change requires privacy.

It really does only take her a moment to return as Lady Bug, bat in hand. "Okay, I'm ready-"

"ID Create!"

Before I can suggest a plan, or ask for a weapon, Lady Bug has launched an especially emaciated zombie into the air with a Rising Strike. Its frail form flies high enough I have to jump a little to catch it with an unarmed Grounding Strike, but that does give me enough time to ready another blow for the moment it hits the ground. Its face squish/crunches around my fist. Thankfully it dissolves off my hand before the sheer grossness can sink in.

A skill has been created through a special action.  
A skill to finish off injured opponents, [Finishing Blow], has been created.  
Finishing Blow (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%  
Allows user to strike an incapacitated target for bonus damage. 25% increase in critical rate. 100% increase in attack damage. Can only be used on prone opponents.  
... and hit the ground!

Brawling's level goes up by one!

You've got 14 XP

"Got Finishing Strike!" I announce. "Do you have a-"

Taylor's already got the knife from yesterday in hand. "You opened the barrier before I could offer you a weapon. This is the only spare I've got on me. You probably can't get Rising Strike with it, though." Even as she's offering the blade to me, her insects are Entangling half a dozen zombies. She's left the nearest one free to shuffle towards us,

"I'll stick to unarmed until that one pops. But thanks." I snag the knife, step forward and mistime an uppercut, hitting it square in the chest for damage only. And not even much at that. "Hey, Taylor, can I ask you something?" I should probably start thinking of her as 'Lady Bug' while in costume.

"Sure." She steps up to another zombie "Power Strike!" and slams her bat into its head.

I step back a little and try the uppercut again. The zombie's hit points drop by maybe a third with a Critical Hit! as his head snaps back, but still no Rising Strike. I'm hitting too high for this, I think. "So what's up with the bitches three? They are way too focused on you and you alone. Seriously, hero or not, how have you not given them crabs or at least lice?"

"Rising Strike!" Tay- Lady Bug slams the zombie she's fighting in the nuts. She does not need to hit that low for the skill to work. It flew into the air as it drops to zero hit points. You've got 14 XP It dissolves into a nothing but a rib that clatters to the deck a dozen or so feet away. "I don't give them crabs because I can feel exactly where all the bugs in my range are. All the time. I don't give them lice because I'm better than them. Than that. I'm going to use my powers for good." She backs away and sighs. "Besides... sometimes my emotions leak into my bugs. If I ever started with them, I'm not sure I could stop. It's... They're... They aren't worth it."

I crouch a bit, plant my feet, and aim another uppercut, this one for the zombie's diaphragm. The corpse lifts completely off the ground. I don't need to check the flashing indicator to know I got Rising Strike. But it's not the time to mention it. "Okay, I get it. Beware the dark side, forever shall it dominate your destiny. But what's with their hate-on for you?" I switch to using the knife.

Lady Bug half-releases a zombie and repurposes the Entangle to trip it. She viciously smashes its head twice with two Finishing Blows. 14 XP "It's a girl thing. Emma used to be my best friend. Then she got to high school and realized that as a model she could be popular, but little old me was uncool. So she ditched me for Sophia the track star and popular girl. I'm the ex best friend forever who is unpopular. She has to diss me to prove she's above me now." She picks up the shard that dropped. "At least that's the only sense I can make of it." She points her bat at another zombie. "Letting that one have a go at you."

"Setting one up. Rising Strike." I launch the undead right into her path with my free hand. "Take it down."

...someone needs to talk to Taylor about her tendency to go for the nads. Aiming for weak points is one thing, but that's just not right. Still, that was a perfect Grounding Strike. I'm sure she's got the skill now.

"If you don't mind me asking, why isn't D&D a good cover story at your house?" Lady Bug is letting one zoot-suited zombie live long enough to get a few hits in, probably trying for Physical Resistance. Her armor is probably doing a lot to make that tolerable. My homemade kit is doing more to stave off glancing blows than I'd expected.

"Honestly, I'm a little on the outside, even in my family, so I don't know all the details," I hedge. It's completely true, though. I smash back a zombie while deciding how to word things. "What I do know is that one night Mom woke the entire house up yelling because she'd found my oldest brother, Bill's Dungeons and Dragons books. Too many demons and too much magic for her take on Christianity." Power Strike and the undead. Catharsis. "She kept the whole house up for three or four hours yelling and crying. When she finally shut up long enough for everyone to get back to sleep, he left. It was over a year before we heard from him again. Even now he's unwilling to be around more than once every three or four months, and it's been around seven years."

"Oh, sounds uncomfortable," her tone sounds just as uneasy. "My family was never really religious."

There's a long, uncomfortable silence. The only sounds are thwacks, slices, and groans. Thankfully, I have a thought. "On the subject of books, I noticed two of my books at home count as skill books. I brought them along. We should check them out after lunch. Tabouli and provolone on wheat, by the way."

The conversation is combat focused and much more comfortable for the next hour or so. Along with both skills I was aiming for, I unlock Light Armor Mastery and earn another point of AGI and STR. Looks like I also got +1 Brawling, +2 Power Strike, +3 Knife Mastery, and +2 Grounding Strike. And a shiny new level.

As I dispel the Illusion Barrier, Lady Bug reports her progress. "I got 3 more levels of Blunt Weapon Mastery and Entangle. 2 more of Rising Strike, Light Armor Mastery, Power Strike and Finishing Blow. Just 1 for AGI, VIT, Combat Mapping, and Dodge. And I unlocked Grounding Strike but not Physical Resistance."

"Maybe nothing hit you hard enough? If it weren't for Gamer's Body, I'd be bruised pretty badly from how I got that. Inventory." Now that I've got my handy extra-dimensional storage, the tupperware is unnecessary. Preplated sandwiches look better anyway. The glasses of water are just me showing off a little. I also pull out two books. There's a brief pop-up as I handle each, but it fades as I place them on the ground.

Taylor ducks around a corner while I'm arranging things and un-equipping the more costumey bits of my outfit. The first thing she grabs isn't a sandwich, but a book. " _Beginner's BASIC_? I…" Her eyes shift in a way I'm rapidly associating with game messages. "Wait! We don't have to study? Push a button and just learn it? This could make computer class even easier. This could make _everything_ easier..." She pokes a finger at the air.

The book vanishes.

Okay, not like an instant 'blink gone' vanish. It suddenly glows, fragments, and disappears like sparks rising from a fire. Taylor's hair floats briefly in a breeze that isn't touching anything else, a calm smile on her face.

"Wow. That was… I already knew most of that, but still. I didn't expect a skill as broad as Computer Programming from this book and it just poured into my head!" She looks down and realizes the book is gone. Her smile turns sheepish. "...sorry."

I wave her off. "I half-expected it. A lot of games only let you get one use out of skill books. I guess _Long is a Dragon_ is mine." I grab the remaining, much thinner book.

You've obtained the skill book [Chinese]  
Would you like to learn the skill?  
Yes No

"I never figured I'd actually learn Chinese before Japanese." I only got the book back in grade school because it had a dragon on the cover. "Yes."

Knowledge fills me, expanding my comprehension of the world around me. Pronunciations, hanzi, and some grammar slots itself neatly into my mind. Wow.

You've obtained the skill [Chinese]  
Chinese (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%  
Allows the user to read, write, speak, and understand Mandarin, Cantonese, and many other sub-dialects. At this level, the user has a pre-schooler's comprehension and will suffer misunderstandings between the various dialects.

"I get the feeling I'll still need to study a lot before it's really useful, but damn me if that wasn't one hell of a jump start."

"No kidding." I guess Taylor found the lightshow as impressive as I did. She looks more timid than I've seen before. "...can we go shopping after lunch? I think I need to visit a used book store…"


	11. Party Invite 2-4

For a different look at things in Party Invite 2.4 we see Taylor's perspective on the events of Tutorial 2.6. Beta by Faria Lyton.

* * *

 **Party Invite 2.4**

When I woke up, I was pleasantly surprised that my arms and shoulders weren't screaming. The first few days after I'd taken up jogging had been decidedly unpleasant. While jogging worked my legs and general fitness, it didn't do much for my upper body. After swinging my bat for hours, I _should_ be feeling the same kind of hurt that I felt in my legs when I first took up jogging. Instead my muscles were sore, but it was the familiar ache of a good workout. I could deal with the pain, and it would fade with more exercise. Obviously James's power was at work, probably from the level-ups. Both times I'd hit a new level I'd been rewarded not just with a pop-up and points, but a burst of energy better than a hot cup of tea and a fresh shower. It was yet another example of just how bloody useful James's powers were.

While I was eager to continue training with James, it was too early to meet him, so I decided to butter up my dad by cooking breakfast. In doing so I learned the [Pancakes] and [Scrambled Eggs] recipes while adding 28.3% to my [Cooking.] I also managed to level [Singing], by just singing along with the radio.

Meanwhile my other skills were not going up near as quickly. I had to shut down [Sense Processing] while trying to cook and eat. Smelling and tasting what my bugs sensed just did not mix well with anything to do with food. My constant efforts to level up [Mental Control Area], [Lingering Command], and [Combat Mapping] were making some progress, but it was slow. More telling was that the higher the level of the skill the slower it was gaining.

Breakfast was quiet. My father was never very talkative until after his second cup of coffee and I was gone before then. I did manage to wheedle a 10:30 PM curfew out of him, which I thought was pretty good considering I had school tomorrow. Even after cooking breakfast I still left early, so I extended my morning jog. I really wanted to pick up a [Jogging] skill especially if it had ridiculous multipliers like [Power Strike] did. A Mover power would be awesome.

I quickly learned that singing while jogging was more difficult than they make it look in the movie versions of Army basic training. Or possibly I just needed to learn some kind of marching songs. The only songs where I could remember all the words were kids songs and some of Canary's recent hits. While I used to like Canary's music, there was no way I was singing that evil bitch's songs anymore. It was capes like her that made people leery of anyone with a Master ability, even ones like me that couldn't control humans at all.

Despite my extended jog I still arrived at the ship's graveyard before James. I spent the extra time trying to train up as many skills as I could by practice. Not that it did much good. I confirmed that just trying to sneak around on my own did nothing to level up [Stealth]. Target practice was just as bad as the previous day at leveling up any combat skill, and constantly singing dried out my throat. Fighting zombies was the way to make real progress. When James finally showed up on bug-dar, I was tempted to race out and meet him, but I forced myself to chill and wait for him. James was a friend and not my personal skill trainer.

James waved as he approached, but the first words out of his mouth were, "Do you have the mask? My quest won't complete, and I think it's because the costume isn't complete."

No, 'Hi Taylor, good to see you?' Just 'Where's the mask?' I was a little miffed, but also guilty because I'd totally forgotten about his quest this morning. I only had his mask because I'd packed it in my backpack last night. I dug it out of my backpack and handed the yellowish grey balaclava over to James. It really wasn't my best work. I'd made it as more of a back-up emergency mask than anything.

He almost snatched it out of my hands, yanked it down over his head, and called out "[Inventory.]" He made some swiping gestures at an unseen screen, and then was suddenly standing there wearing wearing the mask I gave him, his boxers, and his socks.

I wasn't quite ready for almost naked James. I suppose it wasn't any worse seeing James in a pair of swim trunks, but still… Oh em gee, what the hell was he wearing now? I knew that I had no room to talk about poor fashion choices, but this was awful! The sleeves didn't match the rest of his shirt and had been obviously been poorly tacked on. Ugly shirt along with plain black jeans, grey sneakers, and black gloves were the base of his outfit. On top of them he had plastic shinguards that looked like he'd spray-painted them, some kind of shiny plates strapped to his arms and chest, and a bike helmet with a goofy-looking antenna stuck to it. Oh and sunglasses. I couldn't overlook the hideous oversized sunglasses. This would fail even as a Halloween costume. Granted, he didn't really intend that as his hero costume. I knew that he'd cobbled it together from scraps overnight, so I should give him some credit, but even so I was speechless.

"I couldn't find any black spray paint, and the helmet is crap, but it's a start… Meet Beetle Knight!"

"Wait, what?" So not entirely speechless. He was proud of that monstrosity? Bullshit happened then as a cardboard box the size of a small end-table appeared in a golden glow.

James seemed to take the sudden appearance of the box from nowhere in stride. "Beetle Knight. I thought it worked well as an 'insect medieval' theme. And I like the sound of it. Lady Bug. Beetle Knight. Get it?"

Lady Bug Beetle. Beetle Knight. I got it, but... box from nowhere? It really shouldn't surprise me. My bat came from nowhere, as did the zombies, so chalk it up to bullshit powers and move on. The name, Beetle Knight, was at least much better than the costume. Focus on the positive. "Okay, it's not bad. The name works well with Lady Bug and gives us a shared theme. Give me time, and I'll get a spider silk under-suit made to go under your armor." That was better than telling him that his costume sucked. "Also, Parian might have some ideas that work with the name…" James had opened the box removing a helmet. Unlike the rest of his costume it was professional quality: glossy black, bug-eye lenses, stylized mandibles and fangs, and a large freaking hole right in the center of the forehead. "That hole looks… like it could be a problem"

"Let's see what's up with that. [Observe.] One moment…" James removed another box from the box-from-nowhere. Inside he removed a pair of curved horns in a matching glossy black. "[Observe.]"

Horns? Was he Viking beetle now?

James slid the horns into the slot in the helmet and they clicked into place. Once attached they didn't look as bad. "It's got a few different add-ons. This one gives five extra percent of AGI." James rooted through his box of goodies and opened other smaller boxes that were apparently different kinds of attachments.

I recognized one the attachments as matching that of a Goliath beetle. Thinking about that put the other set in perspective. I was pretty sure there was a beetle that had pincers like that, so maybe it actually fit his name. At least the helmet looked good. "That's way better than the one you're wearing. Why don't you try it on?" I offered him what I hoped was an encouraging smile.

James took my advice to heart and swapped the helms discarding the balaclava I'd given him, that horrible bike helmet met TV antenna thing, and his oversized shades.

The pincer helmet was a little campy, but so much better that I couldn't begin to tell him without insulting his efforts. "Yes, much better. I like that helm. If you can get a full set like that you won't need help from me or Parian… That reminds me - did the pauldrons look bad?"

"Haven't made it yet. Just earned a title. I'm a [Novice Hero] now. Gimme a sec." James turned to stare at a pop-up that I couldn't see and made some gestures at it. "That's… really weird feeling. Definitely using this one for a bit, though. That's useful."

I nodded in relief glad the conversation had drifted away from his costume. "Especially for me. I swapped back to [Novice Hero] last night. All I get from leveling is a few stat points, which I plan to save until it becomes harder to earn stat levels."

"Well, it does make more sense to use your rare candies at level 90 than at level 9."

Rare candies? I wasn't sure what that had to do with anything, but I was saving my points so I nodded along.

"We've got a few levels on the zombies now. How about we try training our skills a little, maybe try and fill in our skill lists. I kinda want [Rising Strike] and [Finishing Blow], and I'm sure-"

"I want [Physical Resistance]!" Oops, a little too eager there. "...and [Grounding Strike]. Give me a moment to change into my costume." James might be bold enough to change out in the open, but no way was I flashing my bra and panties to him. "Be right back." I retreated a short distance away to access the [Inventory] feature. With a few quick swipes I was back wearing my costume with bat in hand. I called over a few thousand bugs to handle [Combat Mapping] and [Entangle] and I was good to go. "Okay, I'm ready-"

"[ID Create!]," interrupted James.

As usual we appeared in the middle of zombies. I sent my skirt-nets to [Entangle] most of the zombies close by while pouncing on a zombie that was almost in my face. I used a [Rising Strike] to send it James's way. He batted it out of the air with an unarmed [Grounding Strike] and then pounded it with his fists until it vanished.

"Got [Finishing Strike!]" James said. "Do you have a-"

I cut him off by handing the knife that I'd already retrieved from my backpack hilt first. "You opened the barrier before I could offer you a weapon. This is the only spare I've got on me. You probably can't get [Rising Strike] with it, though."

"I'll stick to unarmed until that one pops. But thanks." James accepted the knife from me and stepped toward the one zombie that I'd left free for us to fight. "Hey, Taylor, can I ask you something?"

"Sure." I freed another zombie and stepped up to the plate bat in hand. "[Power Strike!]" and wham to the side of the shambling dead's head.

James had his own zombie under control, hitting it with uppercuts. "So what's up with the bitches three? They are _way_ too focused on you and you alone. Seriously, hero or not, how have you not given them crabs or at least lice?"

Madison. Sophia. Emma. He had to ask about them. I took out some frustration by swinging my bat like a golf club into the next zombie. "[Rising Strike!]" I caught it below the belt and sent it flying. It went up, but dissolved away leaving nothing but a rib to fall to the deck. If nothing else zombies were useful for venting my anger upon. Still, I owed James some kind of answer. We were partners. "I don't give them crabs because I can feel exactly where all the bugs in my range are. All the time. I don't give them lice because I'm better than them. Than that. I'm going to use my powers for good." That wasn't the whole truth. I also couldn't trust myself enough to use my powers at Winslow. "Besides... sometimes my emotions leak into my bugs. If I ever started with them, I'm not sure I could stop. It's... They're... They aren't worth it."

James planted his feet and the zombie he was fighting with a well-placed uppercut. It was a solid hit and sent the zombie back a bit. "Okay, I get it. Beware the dark side, forever shall it dominate your destiny. But what's with their hate-on for you?" He switched to his knife.

Sometimes I had nightmares about what could happen if I lost control of my bugs, but James took that possibility in stride. Of course, then he had to ask about Emma. I released a zombie from my skirt-nets only to bind its legs together around the ankles. It fell at my feet, and I slammed it twice in the head with [Finishing Strike], the baseball bat version of the double tap. "It's a girl thing." A mean girl thing, but a girl thing. "Emma used to be my best friend. Then she got to high school…" Life would be easier if she'd been a zombie, but real life problems took more than a baseball bat to put down. "…and realized that as a model she could be popular, but little old me was uncool. So she ditched me for Sophia the track star and popular girl." It hurt to say it, but really that's what had happened. I didn't like it, but girls chose sides. "I'm the ex best friend forever who is unpopular. She has to diss me to prove she's above me now." I picked up the shard that dropped. That wasn't really the whole story. Emma could have just ignored me, given me the cold shoulder and let it go. Instead she'd found some sort of cruel joy in making my life miserable. "At least that's the only sense I can make of it." I think that in some ways Emma was a worse monster than any of these zombies. What did it say about me that all those years I'd never seen that inside her? Had she ever really been my friend? Or had she just enjoyed having someone that looked up to her? I pointed my bat at another zombie. "Letting that one have a go at you."

"Setting one up. [Rising Strike]." James launched the zombie at me. "Take it down."

So James had [Rising Strike] now! The airborn zombie made a slightly harder target, but it was still almost impossible for me to miss a maggot-filled corpse. I caught it midair and slammed it down to the deck. A pop-up let me know that I'd gotten the move right and earned the [Grounding Strike] skill. I flashed James a thumbs up. I let another zombie through to me, just using normal blows and letting it fight back. I needed to kill them slower so they could land some blows if I ever expected to get [Physical Resistance.] Since we were doing the talking thing, I should ask him something in return. Madison and the broken collar bone? Maybe something less personal? "If you don't mind me asking, why isn't D&D a good cover story at your house?"

"Honestly, I'm a little on the outside, even in my family, so I don't know all the details." James smashed a zombie with the hilt of his dagger, but it only staggered back instead of going flying. "What I do know is that one night Mom woke the entire house up yelling because she'd found my oldest brother, Bill's Dungeons and Dragons books. Too many demons and too much magic for her take on Christianity." He called out a "[Power Strike!]" and finished off his target. "She kept the whole house up for three or four hours yelling and crying. When she finally shut up long enough for everyone to get back to sleep, he left. It was over a year before we heard from him again. Even now he's unwilling to be around more than once every three or four months, and it's been around seven years."

"Oh, sounds uncomfortable." I wasn't sure what to say. Mankind had not reacted well to the arrival of the Endbringers, but the religions of the world went even crazier about them. I was well aware that many churches now believe that the end of days were upon us. It sounded like James's mother was one of those types. "My family was never really religious." It sounded weak, but I wasn't really sure what else to say. We settled into an awkward silence punctuated by the moans of zombies and the sounds of combat.

James broke the silence. "On the subject of books, I noticed two of my books at home count as skill books. I brought them along. We should check them out after lunch. Tabouli and provolone on wheat, by the way."

Thank you, James! "Oh right, you mentioned learning skills from books. Sure, I want to pick up some." We still had a bit of combat chatter going along, but by unspoken agreement no more awkward questions were asked. Instead we focused on grinding zombies, which was again very rewarding: [Blunt Weapon Mastery +3], [Entangle +3], [Rising Strike +2], [Light Armor Mastery +2], [Power Strike +2], [Finishing Blow +2], [Combat Mapping +1], [Dodge +1], [AGI +1] and [VIT +1]. James did as well as I did. He earned [Rising Strike], [Finishing Blow] and [Light Armor Mastery] and gained one level in [Brawling], two in [Power Strike] and [Grounding Strike], and three in [Knife Mastery], and also a level before we decided to take a break for lunch. The only real disappointment was that I still hadn't received [Physical Resistance].

"Maybe nothing hit you hard enough?" suggested James. "If it weren't for [Gamer's Body], I'd be bruised pretty badly from how I got that. [Inventory]." James started pulling sandwiches out of thin air along with full glasses, not bottles, of water.

While James set out lunch, I ducked around a corner to change. My costume got a little warm after fighting for a few hours, and I wanted to cool down, but not so much as to change in front of him. While I swapped out my outfit I considered his advice about gaining [Physical Resistance]. He was probably right, but that didn't help me much. The zombies hit pretty hard and unlike James I didn't have a slow regeneration. Without my armor I'd be getting a lot more than the few bruises I'd picked up.

When I returned from doing the costume quick change, I discovered that in addition to lunch James had brought two books. Interesting. I picked up the first one " _Beginner's BASIC_? I…"

[You've obtained the skill book [Computer Programming]]  
[Would you like to learn the skill?]  
[Yes] [No]

"Wait! We don't have to study? Push a button and just learn it? This could make computer class even easier. This could make _everything_ easier..." I poked [Yes]. Suddenly my mind was flooded with the details of BASIC: every command, declaring variables, loops, and more. It even included a wealth of detail on how to write structured programs. Technically speaking that wasn't part of BASIC, but I wasn't complaining. I'd already known parts of it, but the rest of it just poured into my memory in astonishing detail.

[You've obtained the skill [Computer Programming]]  
[Computer Programming (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%]  
[Allows the user to read, write, debug and use computer programs, +1 INT]  
[At this level, the user has a BASIC comprehension and will have difficulty with any other programming language.]  
[10 PRINT "Hello World!"]

"Wow. That was… I already knew most of that, but still. I didn't expect a skill as broad as [Computer Programming] from this book and it just poured into my head!" I looked down and noticed the book was gone. Whoops. "Sorry."

James waved off my apology. "I half-expected it. A lot of games only let you get one use out of skill books. I guess _Long is a Dragon_ is mine." He picked up the remaining book. "I never figured I'd actually learn Chinese before Japanese. [Yes.]"

This time I got to watch while James consumed a book. The book devouring came with an impressive light show. _Long is a Dragon_ glowed, shattered into smaller pieces, which scattered and shrank to glittering motes of light before vanishing into nothing. Meanwhile James's hair moved as if caught in an unseen breeze while his mouth stretched into a wide smile.

"I get the feeling I'll still need to study a lot before it's really useful, but damn me if that wasn't one hell of a jump start."

"No kidding." This opened up so many possibilities to us. I didn't want to get pushy again, but... "Can we go shopping after lunch? I think I need to visit a used book store."


	12. Party Invite 2-5

The story of Taylor Hebert and James Barron now continues with a trip to a used bookstore for skillbooks. Beta by Faria Lyton.

* * *

 **Party Invite 2.5**

Lunch couldn't pass fast enough. The revelation that James's gloriously bullshit powers could allow us to instantly learn almost any skill as long as we had the book almost had me skipping like a little girl on the way to the bookstore. The potential ways to exploit that were limited only by our imaginations. Über and Victor, two local villains, had nothing going for them except skills. Über could become the master of any one skill. Victor stole skills from others. James's power didn't let us instantly master skills, but it was broader and judging by how quickly we were leveling our skills we could become the master of anything given enough time.

The real question was what to learn first. While in theory we could learn any skill, we were limited by our available cash unless we wanted to start stealing books. James's power could make stealing books too damn easy. We didn't have to take them out of the store, just take them into an out of the way corner and chomp down on their contents. Despite being easy and having almost no chance of getting caught, neither of us wanted to start our hero careers by shoplifting. Between my 'emergency' twenty and James's ten and change we only had a little over thirty dollars for shopping – not near enough to exploit the glorious potential of skillbooks.

Naturally, we discussed what skills to pick up on our way to the used bookstore. First aid was easy to agree upon. Ranged weapons were discarded. Bows, crossbows and guns all made holes in people. Shadowstalker might carry fancy tranquilizer bolts, but we didn't have access to them. Neither of us was that interested in becoming an expert in the bolo or the boomerang, and I already had nets covered. That still left us plenty of other skills we could acquire.

"James, what do you know about martial arts?" Most of my knowledge came by way of Dad's kung-fu movies. I might not know much about martial arts, but I knew all that was fake.

"I know a little bit. I wanted to take lessons when I was younger, but… it didn't work out." He shrugged and glanced away. "I did some online research last night after I made my costume."

After our awkward attempt at sharing this morning we'd kept things focused on training. I sensed there might be a story behind James's casual words, but didn't feel like probing his wounds or sharing mine. "Okay. So did you decide on anything? Tae Kwon Do or Karate?"

"Kung Fu appeals to me more. I always wanted to be able to say, 'I know Kung Fu,' but not all the crazy little styles they have like Monkey Fist and Praying Mantis. Some games only let you pick one martial art, and just in case I'd prefer a broad one that combines many styles together. Something like Choy Li Fut or maybe Jeet Kune Do. It may be cliché, but I like what I read about its philosophy."

"Hmm." That was pretty specific for someone who claimed to know little about the martial arts. I'd never heard of either of those. I'd given James some ribbing about his low wisdom, but he'd always been book smart and apparently could do his research as well. "So… just a little bit of reading then?"

He grinned. "Well, just a couple of hours. My forum-fu is strong."

That was more than I'd done with a couple of hours online. I'd looked up martial arts before as part of my hero training, but had never reached a conclusion. "I've thought about it before. I thought I might want something like judo that is all throwing and blending and stuff, but that was before I started taking my bat to zombies. Now I just don't know."

"I can tell you that you don't want judo. The thing you need to know about judo is that it was created to be a sport. It's a tamer version of jujitsu that doesn't result in as many broken bones. So if you want to go with something like judo at all, then go all in and get jujitsu. Honestly, if you want that kind of thing I'd suggest you go for aikido. It's more what you said you wanted about blending, taking an opponent's force and using it against him. That's present in jujitsu, but in aikido it's the core philosophy."

I found myself nodding along. "I like the sound of that. Mostly it's for backup. I'm really starting to like my bat."

James laughed. "Funny thing about that. One of the traditional aikido weapons is the wooden sword, or bokken, but otherwise known as a…"

"A bat?" Really? "Are you shitting me?"

"I shit you not."

"Alright then. Looks like I'm going to be aikido girl then." Hopefully. Knock on wood that it could be learned from a book. "Oh, and we're here."

There were three used bookstores in close walking distance, and I knew them all. Lisa's Book Nook wasn't of much use to us. Lisa's was about sixty percent romance books, thirty percent Westerns, and ten percent other fiction. Buy-Back Books, was a national chain store and they had pretty good selection. However, I'd led us to my favorite, Book Brothers. They were a local store that operated out of a two-story building that used to be an office building twenty years ago. Now the interior doors were all removed, and the former offices stacked with floor-to-ceiling shelves. The second floor wasn't level, the carpet was threadbare, and the whole store smelled of books and mildew. I loved it. It held not only books, but memories. Mom used to drag us here. Dad would joke about her getting lost for hours. I'd head to the juvenile shelves and pick up on my own stack of books to take home. They didn't have the selection of Buy-Back Books, but their prices were better especially if you opted for store credit instead of cash when selling them your books. Too bad my store credit was currently zero.

"Come on," I urged James as I led him up the squeaking stairs. "I think what we're looking for is in the hobbies section on the second floor." I'd passed by hobbies on Friday in my search for game books.  
James followed behind me muttering, "[Observe]," repeatedly under his breath. On the second floor I led him through a winding warren of little rooms, past history, biography, and film. We'd barely stepped inside the hobbies room, when James paused like a hunting dog going on point. "They're everywhere in here. Elsewhere not so much, but I'd say about a third of these are… useful." He gave a meaningful glance to where an old man that smelled of tobacco browsing the shelves next to us. "For a given value of 'useful.' Take this one for example, "If you wanted to learn how to [Pilot, Small Aircraft], this would do it. I don't think it is what we're really looking for, do you?"

I shook my head. There was so much I wanted to say, but couldn't. "Mind if I take a look at it?"

"Sure." He passed it across to me.

[You've obtained the skill book [Pilot, Small Aircraft].]  
[A skill for piloting small aircraft.]  
[Minimum AGI: 30]  
[Minimum INT: 30]  
[Would you like to learn the skill?]  
[Yes] [No]

"No, not exactly what I'm looking for." I moved over the large section of shelves that held cook books. I envied James with his ability to just [Observe] books. I had to run my hands over them and wait for the popup window. Almost every cooking book spawned similar popups:

[You've obtained the skill book [Cooking].]  
[You already know this skill.]

Then following that came a wave of recipes that I could learn from eating the book. I started muttering, "No," repeatedly under my breath to close them, but one was different.

[You've obtained the skill book [Gourmet Cooking].]  
[This is a subskill of [Cooking], a skill that you already know.]  
[Learning more about [Gourmet Cooking] will increase your [Cooking] by one.]  
[Would you like to learn this subskill?]  
[Yes] [No]

While I didn't, this was new information on James's power. I turned around to find him, and he'd drifted away to a few rows over. I found him in the martial arts section. Good on him for staying focused. I'd apparently inherited my mother's tendency to be distracted by books. The old guy was a few rows over, but to be safe I stepped in close to James so we could whisper. "Didn't find anything that I want to buy yet, but I learned something. Did you find your book?"

"Yeah. It was really popular for a few years, so it's not too surprising to find a copy." He had the same kind of crazy grin that he'd worn when he'd discovered loot. He showed me a book simply titled _Jeet Kune Do_ featuring a shirtless oriental man who looked vaguely familiar from one of my father's Kung-Fu movies. "It's got some awesome bonuses! I also got lucky and found you this, if you want it."

I took the book he offered. Simple titles must be in, because it was entitled _Aikido_. As soon as I touched it, I received the expected popup box offering me a skill:

[You've obtained the skill book [Aikido]]  
[A martial art with a focus on turning the momentum of opponents' attacks against them]  
[Minimum STR: 10]  
[Minimum AGI: 15]  
[Minimum VIT: 10]  
[Minimum WIS: 20]  
[Due to your previous knowledge you will gain [Akido] at an increased level.]  
[Passively increases knockback and speed of bare-handed throws, holds, disarms, and redirects by 45%]  
[This skill confers expertise in falling safely. Save vs. AGI to mitigate falling and knockback damage and avoid [Prone] status.]  
[While using a traditional weapon: Tanto, Jo, Bokken or Katana, [Aikido] increases the effect of the relevant skill by 1.5%]  
[Warning! This skill replaces [Brawling, lvl 1]]  
[Warning! The practice of [Aikido] requires the ability to maintain a relaxed state of mind even under stress. Skill level in [Aikido] may not exceed character's [WIS]]  
[Would you like to learn [Aikdo, lvl 3]?]  
[Yes] [No]

The warnings caught my eye, but I wasn't too concerned. The description from [Brawling] already stated it would be replaced by a martial art. The fact that aikido was limited by my WIS score wouldn't be a problem for a long time. Rather the fact that this martial art was anchored in wisdom helped convince me that James gave me solid advice when he suggested aikido. It did seem like the better abilities required me to be barehanded, but it also gave me bonuses with my bat/bokken. With any luck that meant I could train [Aikido] and [Blunt Weapon Mastery] simultaneously. Plus it just plain sounded cool. Really, I only had one question.

"This looks pretty damn good to me. What's a jo and a tanto?"

"A jo is a bo - a quarterstaff, and a tanto is the knife version of a katana."

"Then yes, I'll be ta-" I staggered and felt James catch my arm as waves of information poured through my mind: how to stand, how to move, uke – how to initiate an attack and the one who gets thrown, tori – how to receive an attack and the one who demonstrates the technique, how to fall forward and backward and to the sides, how to roll back to standing, waza – the techniques, basic waza, waza for attacking while sitting, waza for taking weapons, and on and on, technique after technique. Each one different and as unique as a snowflake. Having [Computer Programming] crammed into my head was like a water hose of facts and principles. Aikido hit me like a raging river. The flood of aikido wasn't just facts and knowledge; it included know-how, theory, and even philosophy. Aikido integrated itself through every part of me. As the sensation ebbed I became annoyingly aware of my lack of balance and sloppy posture. I straightened myself and gently removed my arm from James's grasp.

"Are you okay?" James looked really concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm even better than fine. I feel good. What a rush." That was mostly true, except for a nagging tightness in my body. I felt like I really needed to stretch, and with that thought all sorts of different stretches that I hadn't known just a moment ago leapt into to my mind. "That one was just a bit… more than the programming one, you know?"

"Not really, but I think I get the gist. [Chinese] was a bit more than what I was expecting." James nodded towards smells-like-tobacco man. "He peered over this way, but went back to minding his own business."

I felt my cheeks growing warm. Tobacco guy probably thought we were a couple. I should be thankful that he hadn't thought more of the sudden bright light when I'd consumed the book. I nodded to James. "Thanks for catching me. Not that I'm complaining, but why did your power have me learn the book?"

"Well, I wasn't going to just watch you tip over. I guess you had the window open and said 'yes'?"

"Right." That made sense. I usually pressed the buttons, but I knew the popups would accept voice commands. "Lesson learned. Watch what we say when windows are open."

James nodded his agreement. "So, what are we going to do about the book? You want to leave a five on the shelf or something?"

I fixed him with my stare for a moment. Nope. He still didn't see it. "What's wrong with that statement?"

This time it was James's turn to look embarrassed. "Whoever finds it will most likely just pocket it."

"Yup." While it was an honest mistake on a five dollar book, I was not starting out my cape career with theft – even if it had been a power accident. "Book Brothers buys back books for store credit. I'll return some books for store credit later this week and never use five dollars of it. That way I repay them for the book, even if they'll never know."

"That works…" He looked me up and down. "I think you're standing differently. So was [Aikido] worth it?"

"Oh hell yeah." Only the fact that we were not alone kept that a firm whisper instead of a shout. "It was definitely worth it. You should get that Jute Kune Do book."

"I'm going to. It's eight bucks." Left unstated was that was almost all of James's cash.

"I already said that you should get it." I got the feeling that James's family was as cash-strapped as mine, but not a sore point that I wanted to poke. "We're pooling our cash. I got my aikido book. It's fine. You did buy me lunch, and it wasn't a date. So I'm just paying you back."

"Right, so... First aid?"

Our quest for first aid books was doomed to failure. I was sorely disappointed in the selection at my favorite used bookstore. They had several shelves of alternative medicine like herbal healing and acupuncture along with a few medical texts appropriate for doctors. The highlight of the small medical section was an eight dollar paperback copy of _Gray's Anatomy_ that taught the [Anatomy] skill to level 25. It didn't take an expert to know that medical students spent years of effort to acquire the detail level of knowledge contained in that thick tome. One of us could learn all that in seconds for a measly eight bucks. I handed the book to James. "Not quite what we need. What we need is a good book on first aid or some kind of paramedic skill."

"Yeah." James had a hungry look on his face, like a wolf spotting a fat sheep, but he returned Gray's Anatomy to the shelf where I'd found it. "I know I've seen books like that sold alongside the first aid kits for Endbringer preparedness. I guess it's the kind of thing people hold onto."

I nodded my agreement. "Maybe another day we'll hit the retail stores, or maybe Buy Back Books." The national chain store bought publisher's leftovers and resold them for cheap.

That left us both at a loss for what else we should purchase. Book Brothers had shelves upon shelves in their hobbies section that offered us so many choices. Some like [Cycling], [Flower Arranging], and [Origami] might be fun to have, but were of no practical value to us. A few others like [Tai Chi] and [Yoga] offered small stat bonuses. If they'd had a book on [Jogging] or [Running], I'd have snatched it up to pick up a Mover ability, but we found nothing. James found a large selection of books that offered skills like [Woodworking], [Welding], and [Pottery] that all acted as subskills to his [Craft] skill and would give him a quick plus one level. I found similar books like [Weaving] and [Crochet] that would add to my [Fashion Design]. Then there were the books that might be useful in certain circumstances. _What to Do When the Fit hits the Shan_ offered the skill [Urban Survival,] but cost fifteen dollars. How useful would [Rock Climbing] be in Brockton Bay? Or [Swimming]? Meanwhile James bemoaned the absence of a book on Parkour. After he described the sport to me, it went on my when-I-have-cash list as well. Maybe once we made our hero debut we could score some cash by breaking up drug deals. That was quasi-legal for cape vigilantes under current laws.

After almost two hours of browsing and comparing titles James and I decided on our final selections and headed toward check-out. On our way I noticed an arrow leading to the Metaphysics section. I usually scoffed at that kind of stuff, but James had mana points, and in the D&D books I'd read magic-user had been a class.

"Hey, James." I waved at the sign. "Look, I know it's bullshit, but…" I continued sotto voice, "… so are your powers. What if your power considers them, um, spells?"

James regarded the sign warily. "Well, it's just about the right kind of bullshit. It can't hurt to look."

I felt like I lost WIS just by stepping in the room. The room was filled with all sorts of stuff that I normally considered complete bunk: UFOs, Atlantis, Scion built the pyramids, tarot reading, astrology, crystal healing, astral projection, modern paganism, witchcraft, and many more. I ran my hands slowly over the shelves getting nothing.

James interrupted my search. "Found a few, but they're general knowledge skills, [Occult Knowledge] and similar." He continued muttering, "Observe" quietly while searching the shelves. "Wait. I may have found one." He sounded eager when he picked it up, but lost his smile. "It's a legitimate skill, but it's more for you."

I took the book from him wondering what kind of skill book from the crackpot section would be for me instead of James. The pop-up gave me the answer:

[You've obtained the skill book [Hypnosis]]  
[The ability to induce a highly suggestible state in a target person.]  
[Minimum WIS: 40]

And that would be why this book was for me and not James.

[With a successful WIS vs WIS check applies the status [Hypnotized] to target.]  
[Cannot be used in combat. Must first make favorable reaction roll on target.]  
[Confers +10% INT to target for memory checks. Allows the hypnotist to make suggestions that target can overcome with WIS save. Bonuses to save apply to suggestions that impact the target's safety or go against their convictions.]  
[Would you like to learn this skill?]  
[Yes] [No]

My, that wasn't vaguely worded at all was it? What kind of suggestions? This could be damned useful, but this skill had a dangerous edge to it. "I'm already a Master. This skill could easily get mistaken as a power and get me classified as a Master who controls humans." And because of Masters like Canary that wasn't a reputation I wanted to have.

"Yeah, but it's also damned useful, isn't it?"

I made sure the pop-up was closed before responding, "Yes." In a fight the only unfair advantage was one the other guy had. However, [Hypnosis] clearly stated it couldn't be used in combat. I turned it over checking the price. "It's also ten bucks. Not today." Dilemma avoided by virtue of being broke. I had the feeling I'd be back for the book. [Hypnosis] had too many potential uses not to acquire, even if it had a perception risk.

In the end James ended up with the Jeet Kune Do book, _Hoyle's Book of Games_ that gave [Gambling] and [+1 LUK], and _The Art of Blacksmithing_ which gave him [+1 Craft] and lots of blueprints that James thought could be useful. I decided on _Hoyle's Book of Games_ for the [+1 LUK] as well because my luck still sucked and the book was cheap. _Balance, Flexibility and Grace_ was a book about gymnastics, but the skill was called [Acrobatics] and it came with [+1 AGI]. _The Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders_ promised me the [Entomology] skill. I'd spent two months studying up on bugs and I had still just barely scratched the surface of what they could do. Having all the detailed information in that book was just too tempting to pass up.

As soon as we paid for our books I almost pulled James out of Book Brothers. "Come on. Let's get back to the Ship's Graveyard so we can download these puppies!" Maybe that was a bit too enthusiastic, but knowledge was a good thing, and these skills would really help us. Besides James was almost hugging his Jeet Kune Do book. He certainly wasn't complaining. "And after that I really want to try out my new [Aikido] skills on some zombies."


	13. Taylor's Character Sheet - Arc 2

I'll be posting character sheets for Taylor at the end of every arc going forward.  
Faria Lyton will also post character sheets for James Barron at the end of every arc of Co-Op Mode. So James's sheet won't be posted until after Tutorial 2.7.

* * *

 **Taylor Hebert aka Lady Bug**

 **Level:** 14

 **Titles**

Active: Novice Hero  
10% increase in exp gain for stats  
10% increase in exp gain for skills  
Only available to level 25  
 _With great power comes great responsibility._

Inactive: Unaffiliated Parahuman  
+20% Reaction rolls with your fellow rogues.  
 _Hero? Villain? Just show me the money._

Inactive: Apprentice Undead Hunter  
30% increase in attack damage against the undead.  
30% increase in defense versus the undead.  
All stats plus 5 while facing the undead.  
 _Become an Undead Hunter and eradicate the undead!_

 **Stats**  
STR: 11  
AGI: 16 (15+1)  
VIT: 24  
INT: 34 (33+1)  
WIS: 59  
LUK: 5 (4+1)  
Unspent Points: 10

 **Skills**

Invertebrate Control (Sustained) Lvl MAX  
Grants the ability to mentally command all invertebrates within control range.  
 _When in doubt more bees._

Multitasking (Passive) Lvl MAX  
The ability to manage 10 to the 48th power concurrent mental operations at the same time. This ability is limited by the input and output channels available to the character.

Invertebrate Clairsentience (Sustained) Lvl MAX  
The ability to receive the sensory input of invertebrates within control range. This includes sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, equilibrium and kinesthesia.

Clairsentience Blocking (Sustained) Lvl 89 Exp 40.4%  
The ability to selectively block out clairsentience to prevent sensory overload.  
 _The voices. Someone turn off the voices!_

Lingering Command (Sustained) Lvl 23 Exp 45.9%  
This skill determines how long effected creatures will continue to follow mental commands when no longer controlled  
Commands linger for 69 minutes.

Mental Control Area (Passive) Lvl 19 Exp 12.8%  
This skill determines the ZoC, Zone of Control, of the character's active mental powers.  
ZoC is 10 meters per level, currently 190 meters

Sense Processing (Passive) Lvl 18 Exp 35.8%  
The ability to process non-human senses without backlash. Chance of backlash increases with more inhuman senses.

Fashion Design, Passive Lvl 11 Exp 15.5%  
You know how to design clothes for both utility and appearance. Well designed clothes can provide bonuses to reaction rolls, defense, and other stats.  
 _You look mahvelous, dahling._

Cryptography, Passive Lvl 5 Exp 5.7%  
A skill for making and breaking codes and ciphers. +1% INT  
 _A1, B2, C3, no you didn't sink my battleship._

Rising Strike (Active) Lvl 6 Exp 47.7%  
Knocks the target into the air. + 90% increase to knockback.  
 _Set 'em up…_

Blunt Weapon Mastery (Passive) Lvl 8 Exp 18.9%  
Allows user to freely handle blunt weapons.  
80% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons.  
40% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.

Finishing Blow (Active) Lvl 5 Exp 76.7%  
Allows user to strike an incapacitated target for bonus damage.  
125% increase in critical rate.  
500% increase in attack damage.  
Can only be used on prone opponents.  
 _... and stay down!_

Dodge (Sustained) Lvl 5 Exp 44.7%  
A dedicated action to avoid an attack. +50% to Agility while dodging  
 _Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee._

Combat Mapping (Sustained) Lvl 4 Exp 67.1%  
By the use of controlled proxies a map of the battlefield is created.  
Negates [Stealth] of tagged foes and penalties for blindness.  
Grants limited awareness of zone of control and combat bonuses versus all tagged opponents.

Knife Mastery (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 15.2%  
Allows user to freely handle knives.  
10% increase in attack speed with knives.  
5% increase in attack damage with knives.

Knife Throwing (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 24.1%  
Allows user to throw knives.  
10% increase in accuracy with thrown knives.  
5% increase in attack speed with thrown knives.

Detect Enemies (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 16.1%  
A skill to detect hidden enemies.  
1% increase to spot hidden enemies  
 _Do you hear what I hear?_

Stealth (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 15.7%  
A skill to remain hidden and avoid enemy notice  
2% bonus to remain hidden while stationary  
1% bonus to remain hidden while moving  
You cannot use Stealth when already spotted by an enemy.

Entangle (Sustained) Lvl 6 Exp 47.9%  
The ability to tangle opponents in nets and snares via proxies  
Successfully entangled opponents must save vs. STR or otherwise destroy the entangle to move.  
+10% increase in attack speed with entangles.  
+10% increase in accuracy with entangles.  
 _Come into my web said the spider to the fly._

Intimidate (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 2.3%  
A skill to frighten your opponents or get them to act in a way that benefits you.  
Requires a verbal threat or display of prowess. Targets must make a save vs. fear.  
+10% to intimidation rolls. Circumstantial and gear bonuses may apply.  
 _You're a little scary sometimes, you know that?_

Light Armor Mastery (Passive) Lvl 5 Exp 19.6%  
You learn how to properly move and fight in Light Armor.  
25% additional armor, 36% decrease in armor fatigue  
 _Lightly armored means light on your feet. Smart._

Power Strike (Active) Lvl 3 Exp 19.7%  
Strikes the target with strong force.  
15% increase in critical rate.  
50% increase in attack damage.  
 _Batter up!_

Cooking (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 32.4%  
By the combination of raw ingredients tasty meals can be created.  
Eating food can restore The Gamer's HP and MP. Higher quality meals restore more of both.  
 _Healthy foods are good for you._

Singing (Passive) Lvl 2 Exp 37.0%  
With Singing you can impress and inspire audiences.  
+20% to Performance checks, +20% to Busking  
 _I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony_

Grounding Strike (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 28.3%  
Knocks the target out of the air. 15% increase in attack damage per foot to ground.  
 _...and knock 'em down._

Computer Programming (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%  
Allows the user to read, write, debug and use computer programs. +1% INT  
At this level, the user has a BASIC comprehension and will have difficulty with any other programming language.  
 _10 PRINT "Hello World!"_

Aikido (Passive) Lvl 3 Exp 0.0%  
A martial art with a focus on turning the momentum of opponents' attacks against them.  
Passively increases knockback and speed of bare-handed throws, holds, disarms, and redirects by 45%  
This skill confers expertise in falling safely. Save vs. AGI to mitigate falling and knockback damage and avoid [Prone] status.  
While using a traditional weapon: Tanto, Jo, Bokken or Katana, [Aikido] increases the effect of the relevant skill by 1.5%  
Skill level in [Aikido] may not exceed character's [WIS]  
 _The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent slaughter._

Acrobatics (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%  
Exercises developing or displaying physical agility, balance and coordination, +0.5% AGI  
Acrobatics provides bonuses when attempting feats such as rolls, vaults and balance.  
Penalties apply while wearing medium or heavy armor.

Gambling (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%  
Knowledge of games of chance and stratagems for success. +1% LUK  
 _Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do_

Entomology (Passive) Lvl 5 Exp 0.0%  
The science of the study of insects.  
 _There are 200 million insects for every human being on Earth_

 **Inventory**

Taylors Usual Wardrobe  
Typical outfit worn to Winslow  
Thrift Shop Hoodie, Bland Shirt, Old Jeans, Clean Socks, Tattered Sneakers, Blue Jogging Bra, Pink Hearts Panties, Smeared Glasses, and Cheap Watch  
Fashion Rating = Unfashionable, -20% to initial reaction rolls, +10% to pity rolls.  
 _Aren't you a sad little thing?_

Aluminum Bat

Lady Bug Costume  
Fashion Rating = Impressive. +50% to Reaction Rolls, +25% to Intimidate, -20% to Stealth.  
Moderate Protection vs. Slashing Damage.  
Moderate Protection vs. Piercing Damage.  
Minor Protection vs. Crushing Damage.

Utility Belt  
Pepper Spray, Epi Pen (x3), Screamer, Cold light stick x2, Keychain flashlight, 20$ Emergency Cash, WD40, Duct Tape, Signal flares (x3). Earth-Bet First aid kit, Multitool, Lighter, Notepad and pen, Chap Stick, Tampons, Spare Glasses, Back-up skirt-nets, Latex Gloves


	14. Boss Fights 3-1

**Boss Fights 3.1**

Outside of Book Brothers the spring sun was bright and the weather was just cool enough to have a slight chill to it. Maybe it was the skill books in my arms, maybe it was learning [Aikido], or simply having a friend and partner, but even the people on the streets seemed happier. I actually broke into a skip – just because. However, I didn't skip very far before I was interrupted by a pop-up.

[From repeated acts of nimbleness your AGI has increased by 1!]

A giggle escaped as I covertly dismissed the window. "I can't believe it! I just got a point of AGI for skipping."

James looked at me dumbfounded. "Really?"

"Yup. Come to think about it. Why are we just walking? We could jog and work our VIT." And get back sooner so we could learn our skillbooks.

"You can jog if you want." Then James started skipping.

I broke into a slow jog to keep up. "James what are you doing?" Boys did not skip. Alright, that sounded sexist even in my head, but it was true. Skipping was a girl thing and a young girl thing at that. It was already uncool for girls by middle school. A boy skipping was asking to be laughed at even in elementary.

"I'm skipping. Duh." James laughed good-naturedly. "Seriously, I need agility much more than I need vitality. I'm below the minimum I need to learn [Jeet Kune Do]."

"Right." I shrugged. When you can't beat them, join them. I started skipping along with him. It was for his benefit. A boy and girl skipping together didn't look near as silly as a boy skipping alone. Instead we looked like a couple, but I doubted we'd run into anyone from Winslow.

"Really, you don't have to skip. If you'd rather jog, then jog," offered James as we skipped along.

"No, it's okay. It's fun to skip. I haven't done this in years." I hadn't smiled like this in years.

[Relationship with James Barron has increased]

Thank you bullshit powers. Oh well, if we were going to do this, may as well do it right. "So, did I tell you I picked up a [Singing] skill?" I launched into what little I could remember of _Skip to My Lou_.

James jumped right in and sang along with me. Neither of us had great singing voices, but it was fun. We sang and skipped all the way to the Ship's Graveyard. I even earned [Singing 3] in the process. While parts of me focused on training my Master skills, skipping, singing, and just enjoying the day; another part of me was brooding. Something wasn't right. I hadn't been this silly since summer camp. Was something wrong with me? I felt different after having [Aikido] downloaded into my head, but I couldn't blame it on the book. I'd skipped a few steps on the way to Book Brothers as well. So maybe I was just happy? Would the universe come to the stop if I was happy? When had being miserable become my normal state of being? The answer to that was obvious – Emma. Letting her dictate my happiness was giving her too much power. So maybe I should just let myself enjoy life again. On the other hand, something was certainly different. My body felt wrong. Too tight.

When we arrived at our spot in the Ship's Graveyard, I knew what I needed to do. "Hey James. Let's stop and stretch out. We need to talk." I immediately fell into doing a set of stretches that I'd picked up with the [Aikido] book. I slid to the deck, spread my legs as wide as I could manage, knowing it wasn't anywhere near good enough, and reached for my left toes.

"S-stretch?" James stared at me with a deer-in-the-headlights look. "Yeah, I guess we really should." He sat down to my side and started copying my stretching.

I nodded approval and switched to my right leg. "Well, first thing is this right here. This stretching. Ever since I read the aikido book, I've felt like it was something I _needed_ to do. And now that I'm doing them, my body feels wrong. Too stiff. I feel like I should be far more flexible than I am."

James continued to copy my movements. "I guess that really isn't that surprising. Most martial artists are very limber. You have to be to do the moves they do."

I shifted to stretching center. I couldn't even get my forehead to the deck. "You're missing my point. I didn't just get the skill. Apparently I picked up some _compulsions_. They're not overpowering, I suppose I could fight them, but I don't want to. Not stretching and being stiff instead of limber is a bad thing. Looking back, I'm amazed that I didn't hurt myself when I threw myself into jogging every day without stretching. I now have a desire to be limber, but I didn't before I learned [Aikido]. I didn't just learn skills. It changed the way I think." I shifted to a one-legged kneel and started my hip stretches.

"Hmm." James again shifted to copy my stretches. "I see. Do you feel the need to drink a case of Mountain Dew and stay up all night coding?"

"What? No. I told you that the [Computer Programming] felt more compartmentalized. Like it has its own allocated section of memory. [Aikido] installed itself into my BIOS." I froze in my stretch as my words hit me. "Oh my God, did I just say that?"

James nodded. "Yeah, you did. I think you just convinced me. Fuck. I'm still going to learn the Jute Kune Do book after we stretch. You found some drawbacks, but honestly if you'd learned aikido the normal way, through years of effort, don't you think you would have acquired the same desire for flexibility? Actually, it might just be that mainlining all that knowledge is a little like spending a few weeks or months focusing on the one thing. I can't say for sure, but I'd guess things will normalize in a few days as things sink in. Or when more skills get added."

I took a long deep breath in, held it and let it go. "Okay, I see where you're going." I shifted my legs to stretch my other hip. "So, by that logic if I'd spent the time to learn [Computer Programming] to the level the book gave me, then naturally the vocabulary would creep into my language. So, there are changes, but they're due to learning the skills quickly?"

"Right. At least I think that's right." James shrugged. "Anyway, [Gamer's Mind] is already changing the way I think. Plus, when I swapped out the [Apprentice Undead Hunter] title, I could almost feel a hatred for the undead draining away. Maybe we just need to watch each other. Like spotting in lifting weights. We keep each other honest. Make sure we don't get overwhelmed, keep an eye out to see if the side-effects wear off in time or not."

I stood up and started doing bends: left, right, center, repeat. "Good thing we're partners then."

I picked up another AGI point for stretching before we were done and broke out the books. _Hoyle's Book of Games_ and _The Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders_ were easier reads. Acquiring the [Gambling] skill didn't come with the urge to go throw my money into a slot machine. [Entomology lvl 5] gave me an almost encyclopedic knowledge of thousands of insects, but other than a better appreciation and understanding of them, didn't really change me. Learning [Acrobatics] from _Balance, Flexibility and Grace_ proved to be a similar experience to learning [Aikido], integrating into me at a deep level. After learning [Acrobatics], my sense of balance and stance felt like they were shouting at me. I was hyperaware of where I stood relative to everything. I also couldn't resist putting it to test with a front flip. I stumbled a bit on the landing, but it felt damned good. I also spotted James while he learned [Jute Kune Do], [Gambling], and [Crafting]. Like me it was the physical skills that seemed to hit harder, but James believed that [Crafting] might have given him a mild case of the tinkering bug. However, he was more interested in trying out (or was that showing off?) his new martial arts skills. He created a fresh illusion barrier for us, and we both set aside our weapons to take on the zombies hand-to-hand.

[Aikido] could be summed up in one word – awesome. I quickly learned that zombies made perfect ukes for my attacks. They all made strong over-committed attacks that broke their balance and left them wide open for any number of throws and counters. That was a good thing, because [Aikido] was very much an opportunistic and reactive discipline that capitalized on opponents' mistakes. Zombies made a _lot_ of mistakes. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of different ways I could take advantage of them. I had more than ten thousand different techniques at my disposal. Most of them didn't apply at any given time, but the zombies were so bad that I sometimes had dozens of possible moves to choose from. I was also aware that using my [Entangle] skill for 'crowd control' kept me from pushing my [Aikido] to the limits. One of the strengths of my new martial art was that it excelled at taking on multiple opponents. A part of me wanted to let all of my [Entangles] go and just wade into the zombies using throws and redirects to keep them smashing into each other. However, that also felt like a newly learned compulsion, and not one I should trust, because I was also very much aware that I sucked at [Aikido]. My body wasn't flexible enough to do many of the moves, my timing needed a lot of work, and I just plain missed sometimes.

Meanwhile, James was rocking his new [Jeet Kune Do] skill. I had bugs on all his joints, so I was very much aware of his moves as he took on zombies with his fists. He would be a nightmare for me to fight with [Aikido]. All of the techniques I'd learned focused on using my opponent's strength against them. For example, I had several techniques to counter a straight up punch to the face: ikkyo defense, nikyo defense, sankyo defense, kokyunage defense, and more. However, they all required me to blend with the attack – being fast enough to spot the attack and catch the fist. James was using some powerful quick punches that seemed to explode almost out of nowhere. He also mixed that up with quick snap kicks to knees and lower legs. My newly learned knowledge of Aikdio techniques offered me counters for everything James did, but actually pulling them off against him was beyond my current skill, even with using my bugs to map his every move.

All in all our afternoon of fighting zombies was very profitable. From the bookstore trip James gained [Observe +2]. Skipping back had earned him [Singing] and [AGI +2]. From fighting zombies he leveled up [Jeet Kune Do +3], [Physical Resistance +2], [Power Strike +2], [Light Armor Mastery +2], [Sense Danger +1], [Dodge +1], [ID Create +1], [ID Escape +1], [STR +2], [AGI +1], [VIT +1] and two levels. While fighting zombies I'd picked up [Aikido +3], [Combat Mapping +2], [Dodge +2], [Entangle +2], [Light Armor +2], [STR +1], [AGI +1], [VIT +1], and a level.

"I also leveled my [Cryptography] to 6 during the fighting and I'm a good chunk of the way to 7," I casually mentioned to James as he was getting out our evening meal.

James boggled at me. "How the hell did you manage to level [Cryptography] while we were fighting?"

"Oh, I had some of my bugs encoding random words into a pig-pen cipher while we fought." I flashed him a tired grin. Yeah, I was gaming the system, but he'd encouraged it.

He childishly stuck out his tongue at me. "You know, you're a cheating cheater who cheats."

I grabbed a celery stick and dipped it in the bowl of humus that he'd set out. "Yeah, but what's to stop you from working [Observe] while you fight? Or maybe I should learn [Chinese] and we could level that just by talking." Although I might want [Japanese] instead. I'd picked up quite a few Japenese words from learning [Aikido], but they lacked context. I knew just enough to want to learn more.

James nodded. "You learning Chinese so we can practice together is a pretty good idea, but [Observe] isn't a skill that I can grind in combat. I don't need the pop-ups blocking my view."

From there our conversation turned to the various skills we should get when we could afford more skill books and ways I could munchkin with my ability to [Multitask]. James had an interesting idea that I could use multiple teams of bugs to be translating the same message into multiple codes at once and level up [Cryptography] even faster. That one was certainly worth trying out.

It was getting late, but James wanted to do one last run with a bug army to rapid clear an entire dungeon of zombies. I wasn't all that keen on the idea. First of all the zombies weren't that vulnerable to my bugs. I'd tried commanding the maggots in them to eat faster to little effect. The zombies were already dead and their hearts didn't beat. They didn't even seem to notice black widow bites. Second, I wasn't convinced that leveling faster was even a worthy goal. We had definitely established that skills improved faster in combat with zombies than by any other method. From my perspective improving our skills was more important than levels. Especially since [Novice Hero] stopped at level 25. The points to spend on stats were useful, but I was still reluctant to spend mine when I didn't understand the system. However, James didn't just get points for stats. Every time he leveled his HP and MP increased. For that reason alone I was willing to indulge his experiment, but there were other good reasons. James thought I might get a new skill that was both an AoE, Area of Effect, and a DoT, Damage over Time. Also, we had a few close calls where one of us had been knocked down that could have gotten out of hand. Having some extra bugs on standby, even if we didn't use them to rapid clear the dungeon, was a pretty good idea.

However, what really sold me on the idea was that I'd leveled a little after we'd started up this afternoon and I was still a long way from my next level. My whole body was sore from doing [Aikido] and using my muscles in unfamiliar ways. Just sitting down and eating dinner I was already starting to get stiff. If I didn't level before we quit, I was going to be in a world of pain tomorrow. So I summoned up a swarm to make the attempt. We briefly tried storing bugs inside James's inventory, so I could bring more inside. However, his inventory wouldn't accept live bugs. That meant that to get a large swarm inside I had to pile layer after layer of bugs up on top of us. This was enough to creep even me out a little and I was getting used to having hundreds of bugs crawling on my armor. I expected James to freak, but he was remarkably calm about the whole thing.

Seven zombies immediately attacked us as soon as James opened the dungeon. Clearing them out was easy. I'd switched back to my bat and was pleased that it served quite well as a bokken. I could feel my [Aikido] knowledge telling me how to strike. We'd even toyed with the zombies a bit with me using [Rising Strike] and James batting them down with [Grounding Strike]. The combo was more fun than useful. Most of the time [Power Strike] was easier to pull off. So was [Finishing Strike]. Zombies were ridiculously easy to trip in my skirt-nets.

"Immediate area clear," I announced as James put down the last zombie that had swarmed us on entering. "I've got three on hold with [Entangle] on the ship and bugs on forty-two others throughout the zone. My bugs are chewing as best they can, but is it doing anything?"

"[Observe]." James stared at one of the zombies that I had wrapped up nearby. That zombie was currently playing host to three thousand and twelve biting bugs. "Yeah, it's working. It's showing up as a DoT effect and its hit points are slowly going down. Does that mean you got the skill?"

I flipped through my popups. "Oh yeah. I got it! I even get to name it." I tapped away at the keypad that appeared.

"So what did you name it?"

"Swarm of Doom!" Alright, I might have sounded a bit smug, but I'd earned it. "Does pretty much what you'd predicted, AoE and DoT… speaking of the DoT, how fast are the zombies going down?" I quickly looted while James did his [Observe] thing.

James consulted his watch and muttered [Observe] a few times along with making a few gestures I don't think had anything to do with his screens. "Looks like 2 to 3 HP per second, maybe five or six minutes and you'll take down every zombie in the zone."

"Okay, that's cool." I honestly didn't think my bugs would be that effective on zombies. "So… smash a few while we wait?"

James grinned. "You bet." He pointed toward the closest one. It was one of the leisure suit type zombies that didn't know disco was dead. "That one."

I commanded my bugs to let it go, and it staggered towards James. While we battled the few zombies close to us, all across the zone my bugs ate at the maggot-infested zombies. Then the zombies began to die. "They're going now. There goes three, five, seven, fifteen, half gone now, but starting to get some fresh spawns. Just a few left, but more new ones are spawning. Three originals left. Two. One. Gone."

Popups flooded my vision that I dismissed. It was my own power, yet this felt creepy to me. I'd just killed dozens of zombies in just a few minutes. Yeah, I'd killed more zombies in total throughout the day, but I'd beaten them down with my bat. This had been a mass kill. I didn't feel guilty about killing zombies, especially not simulated zombies. I already sensed more winking into existence as replacements spawned. What bothered me was how easy it had been. I could have done that to humans much more easily. It shouldn't be this easy to kill. However, we were in a combat zone with legions of the undead. I'd have to wrestle with my conscience later. We had a problem. "Shit. We didn't think this through."

"What do you mean?" James didn't seem too worried.

"I killed forty-two zombies across the zone. We've got 23 piles of loot scattered all over the place, and one of them is a blueprint. Are we just going to write that loot off?"

"Oh," said James eloquently.

"Yeah, oh." Having our entry point on the container ship was a pretty sweet deal. The non-flooded part of the ship took up only a small section of the zone. Once we cleared it, it was pretty easy to keep clear. We'd get a few pops on the ship and there was a rare scuba diving zombie type that could swim, but most of the zombies had to walk up the submerged tugboat to get to us. That gave us a nice chokepoint that forced the zombies to approach us a few at a time. If we left our happy little container ship for the shore, we'd have to deal with the maze of the Ship Graveyard. It would be a lot easier to get surrounded. We'd both learned the lesson that individuals zombies were easy to kill, but they got dangerous in large numbers. Plus it was dark now. Zombies spawned stronger at night.

"I hate to leave the loot. Especially a blueprint. We've gotten a lot better at killing them, and with your [Combat Mapping] they can't really sneak up on us."

"True." I didn't like leaving our nice tactical position on the container ship, but it should be safe enough with my combat map. "We'll go get them and use my new [Swarm of Doom] to soften them up."

"Cool. Yeah, we should be good. Let's kill some zombies."

.oOo.

Circling through the zone to pick up our loot resulted in our most intense fighting yet. Even using my skirt-nets and my [Swarm of Doom] to soften up the zombie horde we were usually fighting three to four zombies at once. I think that was partly because of [Swarm of Doom] to be honest. The faster we killed them, the faster they popped.

We had also both failed to anticipate that darkness didn't just cause the zombies to spawn at a higher level. With the overcast sky it got dark quickly once the sun set, and that made it hard to see. I found poor lighting didn't trouble me all that much. I merely put more bugs on the ground, and I aimed for the moving clusters of maggots that I sensed. However, it did affect James. I cracked open my two cold light sticks and dedicated flying bugs to carrying them above his head to give him some light. I also tasked what few fireflies I had available to lighting up zombies as they got close to us. Still, it was worth it because I was getting skill and stat checks left and right. We were almost back to the submerged tugboat when the zombies suddenly backed off.

"James, something is happening…" And I didn't like it. "More and more zombies are spawning, a bunch more, and they're all converging on a single point, and it isn't us." I pointed over to where it was happening. "They're… merging." I could feel it with my powers, they were all growing together into one big pile of maggots. I could also see it with my eyes. Not very far away on the beach the zombies were climbing one on top of each other, and flowing together. The result wasn't a dogpile of zombies, but one gigantic colossus composed of zombies. "What is that thing?"

"[Observe.] Oh SHIT! It's a boss! Legion Zombie. Level 34!"

"James get us out of here! Now." I grabbed his hand. We'd left some bugs behind when we left a zone, and they hadn't reappeared for almost five minutes. I did not want to be left behind with that thing.

"[ID Escape!]" screamed James. "Fuck! We're locked in until we kill it!"

"Or maybe you're too low level with that skill. Keep trying! I'll stall it." In fact I was already trying to stall it. I was pushing almost all my bugs to attack, but I knew how long it took my bugs to eat through a normal zombie - five minutes. This thing was much bigger.

"[ID Escape!] It's not working and we can't stay here. Come on! Let's get to the ship!"

"No, the ship's a deathtrap. That thing's too big, and the water's not that deep. He could wade in after us and we'd have nowhere to run. We need to circle around and give my bugs time to wear it down." I pulled James away from the Legion Zombie.

The problem with just running in circles was the land side was a slightly less than half-moon shape. There wasn't a lot of area to circle in. We didn't want to get caught in the corners. Which could happen too easily. The thing was lumbering towards us now, and its lurching walk was only a little slower than our running speed. Fortunately some of the beached ships were big, and it walked around them instead of climbing over.

"James? How fast is it going down?"

"Slowly." That one word huffed out as we ran conveyed a lot of emotion.

We had baited it towards the shore, now I turned and led us away from it. "How slowly?"

"Too slowly. Taylor, it has over 15,000 HP. Your bugs are hurting it a little, but it will take hours at this rate."

We didn't have hours. Maybe James with his weird power could run for hours. I couldn't. Not after fighting zombies all day. Or worse, the normal zombies might start popping again after a while. We couldn't afford that. I was pretty sure that it was not good to get bogged down fighting infantry while hiding from a tank. The creature was about two stories tall, simply too big to entangle in my skirt-nets. Hmm, maybe… a murky idea began to form. A pop-up suddenly appeared in front of me. I spared it a quick glance, then dismissed it.

"James I have a plan. It's risky, but it just might get us out of here alive. If you have any bright ideas to bring to the table, speak up now."

"I've got nothing but hit it 'til it stops moving, try to not die." He dodged around an old tire marked by my fireflies that blocked his path. "You really have a plan to kill that thing?"

"Your power thinks so. It gave me a [Tactics] skill for thinking of it." I quickly outlined my idea to him. "I think it could work. We might actually live through this."

James paused for a moment to think it over, or maybe he was just catching his breath. "I love your plan! I'm excited to be a part of it! Let's Do It!" He broke out with a strange choked laugh. "Seriously, it's a pretty good plan. I do have one suggestion to improve on it though."

"Spill it. I'm open to anything at this point."

"Before we do anything else I think we should switch back to [Apprentice Undead Hunter] and spend all our saved points on our stats. Saved points won't do us any good if we're dead, and the points I dropped on AGI earlier made a _lot_ of difference."

Doh. So much for my 59 WIS. "Hell yeah, we should do that!"

Changing our stats meant stopping briefly to access the screen. That didn't give us much time to decide. STR to do more damage, or AGI to hit and dodge? Then my eyes fell on my 4 LUK. My plan didn't need me to be lucky, but a bit of bad luck could kill us. I knew my bad luck was real. Fuck it. I dropped all 15 of my saved points into my LUK.

The first part of my grand plan didn't involve much more than what we were doing already, running around in circles for our lives. That Legion Zombie was almost as fast as we were. I constantly shifted my bugs ahead of us to maintain a tactile map of the terrain, as well as moving my fireflies and lightstick toting bugs around to light our way. While that was happening I tested out something new. I pulled most of my bugs off the attack and compressed them into a big cloud trying to make a decoy. I wasn't sure it would work. I'd blinded some of the zombies earlier in the day with bugs, but that hadn't slowed them down much. I wasn't sure the zombies were really seeing. Fortunately, whatever senses the big bad boss zombie had, it reacted to a big cloud of bugs mashed together into child's playdoh version of a person as a target. At least it did for a little while. It was never remained fooled for long but would chase each decoy for a little while. I'd just have to make a little while be long enough. I dismissed the notice that I'd also earned a new skill [Swarm Clone] without even really reading it. I'd worry about it if I survived.

I picked our ambush point with care. It was a long straight section of path near the center of the zone that had a lot of debris on the edges, good places for hiding. "Right, James. This is where we split up. Follow the bugs to your hiding spot."

James paused and looked at me. If he was at all afraid, he was controlling it well. "Good luck, Taylor."

"Good luck, James." I turned away and whispered, "[Stealth]". Voicing the commands seemed to make them work better, and the louder the better, but that made absolutely no sense for [Stealth].

I created one short term decoy after another to lure the Legion Zombie toward our trap. It wasn't much of a trap. While we'd been running, I'd tied every one of my skirt-nets together along with my cloak-nets to make a long rope. To make doubly certain the joins were solid I had my spiders secure the knots in spider webbing. I just had to hope that my makeshift rope was strong enough to hold it, and that my bugs were fast enough with the rope to play Luke Skywalker to the Imperial Walker Zombie.

I could feel the ground shake as it stomped past me. Staying put as that huge thing walked past us chasing my decoys was one of the hardest things I've ever done. A deep primitive place inside me knew what it meant to be chased by a large predator and was screaming at me to run away. I pushed my fear into my bugs, and as the Legion Zombie stumbled past us shaking the ground, I commanded my bugs to fly.

They went up and around, wrapping my makeshift rope once, twice, three times around the creature's legs. Wasps and other fliers carried spiders and dropped them on the ropes and my spiders immediately started laying webs to further secure things while the Legion Zombie teetered, toppled and fell. That's what all my effort was directed towards, because of all the attacks James and I had at our disposal, one of them did the most damage.

"[Finishing Strike!]" I bellowed at the top of my lungs as I leapt out of my concealment and brought down my bat with all my strength on its right knee.

A part of me was aware that James had also jumped out and had attacked the thing's left knee, just like my combat map told me the zone was still clear, and the maggots inside the undead giant told me that it was still down. None of that mattered. What mattered was hitting it while it was down. I screamed out, "[Finishing Strike!]" again and again and slammed away at its knee with my bat.

I was aware of the exact moment that it recovered. It didn't try to rise, it just reached out and tried to grab me. "Retreat!" I backed away into the rubble as it gave chase. Even without its legs it dragged itself forward far faster than I expected. I scrambled as best as I could climb over the debris that formed my concealment trying to get away, but it was closing in on me.

James chose that moment to disobey my orders. While the Legion Zombie pulled its body by its arms in an attempt to reach me, James kept slamming away at it, still screaming out his own cries of "[Finishing Strike!]"

Apparently James's attacks were too much for the creature to ignore. It turned from me to scramble after James. Which made it my turn to attack. From that moment the fight was ours. It was too stupid to keep focused on one of us. Like two matadors playing a bull we took turns. When it chased James, I beat on it with my bat. When it chased me, James attacked. It must have taken another fifteen minutes to finally kill it, but we chipped away at it blow by blow until it finally lay still and then vanished leaving nothing but a pile of dust and some loot.

James and I rushed each other whooping and hollering and beating on each other's backs. We hugged more than once from the sheer joy of being alive.

* * *

Author's Note: For those of you interested during the Legion Zombie fight Taylor gained: Acrobatics +1, Aikido +1, Blunt Weapon Mastery +4, Combat Mapping +2, Dodge +4, Entangle +3, Finishing Blow +4, Light Armor Mastery +2, Power Strike +1, Rising Strike +1, Stealth +2, Swarm Clone +2, Swarm of Doom +2, Tactics 1, VIT +2, AGI +2, STR +3, 15 stat points spent for LUK +15


	15. Tutorial 2-7

Tutorial 2.7 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Tutorial 2.7**

Skipping down the streets doesn't really match my mental picture of Taylor from the last year or so, but I guess she's excited about skill books. I've only been to Book Brothers a few times, but Taylor seems sure it's our best bet for finding a useful book or two for cheap.

"Don't get too excited," I have to warn her. "I've only got about ten bucks in spare change. I doubt we can get more than two or three books for that."

"I've got twenty dollars for emergencies. And this is a book shopping emergency!"

Well, that's my kind of a shopping emergency. Glad she's not the kind to have blown it on a new purse or shoes. "So, what are we looking for?"

We discuss options for a better ranged attack than [Knife Throwing], but can't think of anything we're happy with. Guns, crossbows, and bows are all a bit too lethal. Not to mention how expensive guns and crossbows can get. I could probably carve a shitty bow (hey, maybe I'd get a [Crafting] skill), but it'd be too unwieldy to run around the city with. We consider lassos, bolos, and boomerangs, but neither of us wants to be known for something that gimmicky. Maybe after we've established ourselves with the image we want.

When Taylor asks about martial arts, I fib a little about researching last night. It only took half an hour or so to make sure I was remembering things correctly. And that Cyberpunk 2020 and a few online conversations weren't completely BS. If this is like one of those 'pick one style' games, I want something well rounded, like Jeet Kune Do or Choy Li Fut (if I don't want to be cliche). I'm glad Taylor is accepts my comments on the unsuitability of Judo. Sports have no place in a real fight. I steer her towards Aikido when it occurs to me that a bokken and a bat are close enough to let her keep using her favorite weapon.

Seriously, she's become really attached to that thing in the last twenty-four hours. When I stashed her gear in my inventory I had to convince her to let me store it before we get to the bookstore. I think if I hadn't reminded her that I shouldn't be using my inventory in public and that most stores wouldn't let her in with it she'd still be carrying it.

Book Brothers smells like paper, ink, and mildew. I think I've found a new favorite store. If it weren't for Taylor leading the way, I could spend hours exploring the place. As it is, I'm throwing out [Observes] like it's a mantra. I even earn two more skill levels out of it. I can tell the moment we enter the room she was aiming for. Something like one in three books is described as a skill book. Most are almost useless, though. I can't think of any time I'll need a [Tiddlywinks] skill. "They're everywhere in here. Elsewhere not so much, but I'd say about a third of these are… useful." A grungy old dude who reeks of tobacco smoke is poking at a shelf of [Photography] and [Collage] books. "For a given value of 'useful.' Take this one for example, "If you wanted to learn how to [Pilot, Small Aircraft], this would do it. I don't think it is what we're really looking for, do you?"

Taylor shook her head, but still held out a hand, "Mind if I take a look at it?"

"Sure." There's no reason why not. I start throwing out an [Observe] or two to figure out where the Martial Arts books are while she's looking over the airplane book.

She puts the book aside with a mutter of "No, not exactly what I'm looking for." I find what I'm looking for as she wanders over towards the cook books.

[You've obtained the skill book [Jeet Kune Do]]  
[A hybrid martial art with a focus on real-world combat and interrupting the opponent's attacks.]  
[Minimum STR: 10]  
[Minimum AGI: 20]  
[Minimum VIT: 15]  
[Minimum WIS: 10]  
[Minimum INT: 25]  
[Due to your previous knowledge you will gain [Jeet Kune Do] at an increased level.]  
[Passively increases speed and damage of unarmed attacks by 20%]  
[Passively grants a 2% chance to disrupt the opponent's next attack within a second on a successful hit.]  
[Warning! This skill replaces [Brawling, lvl 4]]  
[Warning! The practice of [Jeet Kune Do] requires the ability to maintain a relaxed and analytical state of mind even under stress. Skill level in [Jeet Kune] may not exceed character's [WIS] or half the character's [INT]]  
[Would you like to learn [Jeet Kune Do, lvl 2]]  
[Yes] [No]

I'm short on AGI, but I'd rather spend a few stat points and start using this gloriously bullshit skill now. I'm not even sure how I could grind AGI anyway. Hopscotch? Cat's Cradle?

It only takes a moment to check the alphabetized shelves for a book on Aikido. Well, two moments. I look for "Beginner's Aikido" or something similar in the 'B's before shifting to the 'A's.

"Didn't find anything that I want to buy yet, but I learned something. Did you find your book?" Gah! Ninja-girl! When'd she get over here?

I hold up the book with a grin. "Yeah. It was really popular for a few years, so it's not too surprising to find a copy. It's got some awesome bonuses!" Out comes the Aikido volume. "I also got lucky and found you this," And now I'm probably being pushy. It is her money afterall. "If you want it."

Taylor's eyes flick back and forth as she reviews the skill. "This looks pretty damn good to me. What's a jo and a tanto?"

Jo… that's sounds familiar… oh, right. "A jo is a bo - a quarterstaff, and a tanto is the knife version of a katana."

"Then yes, I'll be ta-" Oh crap. The book breaks into glowing fragments and fades away. Taylor slumps and I grab her elbow just in case. It looks like she's a little overwhelmed. ...it's a little awkward just standing here holding a girl's arm. The smokey old man glances our way, but I guess he didn't quite catch what happened as he goes about his business almost immediately.

As Taylor recovered she reclaimed her arm before things got too awkward, I checked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She doesn't look like there's any ill effects. "I'm even better than fine. I feel good. What a rush." She shifts, almost like she's about to stretch. "That one was just a bit… more than the programming one, you know."

"Not really, but I think I get the gist." I'm not sure since we were sitting last time, but it sounds like it had a bit more oomph to it than the other skills. "[Chinese] was a bit more than what I was expecting." Tobacco man is still within sight. I nod towards him, "He peered over this way, but went back to minding his own business."

Taylor nods back. "Thanks for catching me. Not that I'm complaining, but why did your power have me learn the book?"

"Well, I wasn't going to just watch you tip over." Oh, wait, that wasn't the question. Hmmm. Probably the voice command. Taylor has been using the buttons most of the time so far. "I guess you had the window open and said 'yes'?"

"Right. Lesson learned." And it's her turn to nod again. Lot of that going around. "Watch what we say when windows are open."

Good point. My nodding turn. Come to think of it, learning a martial art this way sounds like kinda I imagined it would feel from watching _The Matrix_. I'll have to upload it as soon as we pay. On the subject of paying... "So, what are we going to do about the book?" Even as an accident, stealing isn't very heroic. But we can't exactly pay for it and tell them 'my power ate the book'. "You want to leave a five on the shelf or something?"

And there's the Look. What'd I do this time? "What's wrong with that statement?"

What? We leave the money and the workers find the money… after… close. Ah. "Whoever finds it will most likely just pocket it."

"Yup. Book Brothers buys back books-" Yay alliteration! I mean… "for store credit. I'll return some books for store credit later this week and never use five dollars of it. That way I repay them for the book, even if they never know."

"That works." I give Taylor a shrewd look. Huh. She looks a little taller. Ah, the slouch is gone. "I think you're standing differently. So was aikido worth it?"

"Oh hell yeah. It was definitely worth it." There's a bit of barely restrained glee in her tone. "You should get that Jeet Kune Do book."

Well, I really want to. I glance at the price tag. "I'm going to. It's eight bucks." Which is almost all I've got, but it's so worth it.

"You should get it. We're pooling our cash." Well, that's nice. I'm not exactly comfortable with it though. "I already got an aikido book. It's fine. You did buy me lunch, and it wasn't a date. So I'm just paying you back." ...I'll keep it reasonable.

"Right, so... First aid?" It doesn't matter which of us learns that first, we'll both benefit. Unless my [Gamer's Body] makes normal medical techniques useless on me, that is. Can't exactly bandage cuts that vanish immediately or replace missing HP from a bottle.

..ooOoo..

There aren't any useable First Aid books at Book Brothers. There are some full-on medical texts that require 75 INT or more, some alternative medicine books that offer mild buffs only, and a copy of _Gray's Anatomy_ that didn't seem immediately worth the eight dollar price tag. But we'll have to come back for that. Even if I never _need_ it, that kind of raw knowledge intrigues me. We'll have to hit one of those military surplus/Endbringer prepper stores some other day. They usually have First Aid manuals.

We check out a lot of ideas, but most of them are full-on useless, or way too situational to spend our limited funds on. Taylor suggests we see if any of the new-agey, neo-Pagan type books would work for me. It's a bit much like the Acolytes (crazy villains who claim their powers are magic) for me, but I _do_ have MP. As is, there are a few knowledge skills like [Occult Knowledge], and the only real skill book, [Hypnosis], is useless for combat _and_ requires 40 WIS. Taylor isn't interested enough to get it either, especially with the negative connotations these days. Fucking Canary.

After over an hour's browsing, I settle on _Jeet Kune Do_ , _Hoyle's Book of Games_ for [Gambling] and a boost to LUK, and _The Art of Blacksmithing_ , which promises to give me my first level in [Crafting] and a load of blueprints. I don't think I'll ever need to make horseshoes or nails, but it's nice to have the option. And until more blueprints drop from killing zombies, I'll happily settle for some self-made platemail.

Taylor gets the game book, a book for acrobatics, and _The Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders_. Not sure I get the last one. She seems to know almost everything about each bug she controls. But if she thinks it could be useful...

Our total is almost $30, so Taylor's twenty isn't enough, which means spending the random change I dumped in my inventory this morning. I hate spending loose coins. And I really should have just put it in my pockets. "Taylor, keep an eye out. I need to get my money out of my [Inventory]." There's no pile of change in my inventory. There's no neat stacks of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. Instead, there's a little label reading $12.89 at the bottom of the screen. If this is anything like an action RPG, I just need to poke here and-

[Withdraw how much?]  
[$ 00 . 00]  
[Accept] [Cancel]

It's simple enough to poke the up arrow in the tens column and the accept button. I quickly cup my hands to catch the coins. And a single bill drops into my hands. I tap Taylor's shoulder. "Um… my power just gave me a ten for my change."

..ooOoo..

I love early spring. Not too hot, not too cold, and there's usually just enough clouds to keep my poor troglodytic eyes safe. I could do without the insects, but that's just something I'll have to get over with Taylor around. As she starts skipping down the road (she must be just as excited about the books as I am), I discreetly slide the books into my inventory. A giggle draws my attention.

"I can't believe it! I got a point of AGI for skipping."

Oh, that's just bullshit. And conveniently timed. "Really?"

"Yup. Come to think about it. Why are we just walking? We could jog and work our VIT."

And the sooner we get back the sooner we can learn those books. But it isn't VIT I need right now. "You can jog if you want." I take off at a skip.

"James what are you doing?"

Something about skipping makes it hard to not grin. "I'm skipping. Duh." The incredulous look on Taylor's face makes me laugh a little. "Seriously, I need agility much more than I need vitality. I'm below the minimum I need to learn [Jeet Kune Do]."

She shrugs, "Right." and joins right in.

I hope she's not doing this because she's trying to make me stand out less. I mean, I don't care much if I stick out. "Really, you don't have to skip. If you'd rather jog, then jog."

"No, it's okay," she's getting the skipping grin, too. "I haven't done this in years."

More people should skip. It's the most fun form of ambulatory transit I know.

Taylor's grin turns mischievous. "So, did I tell you I picked up a [Singing] skill?"

We spend the rest of the trip singing _Skip to My Lou_ , which netted me the [Singing] skill and [+2 AGI]. Well, every point counts.

The moment we reached our spot, Taylor slid to the ground and spread into a basic stretch. Oh, hello, happy strip of skin. I'm really not trying to perv, but when a girl's shirt rides up just a touch like that… Eyes just don't want to cooperate. "Hey James. Let's stop and stretch out." Yes, stretching. Good idea. Also pulling her jeans snug. Do go on. "We need to talk." ...ah crap. Eyes front and hope she didn't notice.

"S-stretch?" Okay, act cool. I circle to a less creeper angle and join her on the deck. "Yeah, I guess we really should." I copy her side-toe-touch thing. I really don't know what these are called.

She nods at me as she switches to her right leg. I follow along. Safe! ...I hope. "Well, first thing is this right here. This stretching." Focus on my toes. Reach for the toes. "Ever since I read the aikido book, I've felt like it was something I needed to do. And now that I'm doing them. my body feels wrong. Too stiff. I feel like I should be far more flexible than I am."

Nothing wrong with that. "I guess that really isn't that surprising. Most martial artist are very limber. You have to be to do the moves they do." Limber, that's a good ide… my god, what is with me today? She's stretching center now.

"You're missing the point. I didn't just get the skill. Apparently I picked up some compulsions." The emphasis brings me back to focus. "They're not overpowering, I suppose I could fight them, but I don't want to. Not stretching and being stiff instead of limber is a bad thing. Looking back, I'm amazed I didn't hurt myself when I threw myself into jogging every day without stretching." Oh, she's been jogging? That explains how much higher her VIT is than mine. And how nice her- sonuvabitch! Focus, James! "I have a desire to be limber, but I didn't before I learned [Aikido]. I didn't just learn skills. It changed the way I think."

Let's think. "Hmm." I wonder if [Computer Programming] affected her the same way. "I see. Do you feel the need to drink a case of Mountain Dew and stay up all night coding?" Okay, a little stereotypical, but Pa's told me a few stories about how things get in IT.

"What? No." Taylor looks more offended than that warrants. "I told you that the [Computer Programming] felt more compartmentalized. Like it has its own allocated section of memory. [Aikido] installed itself into my BIOS." We both freeze mid-stretch. "Oh my God, did I just say that?"

"Yeah, you did. I think you just convinced me." This could be bad. "Fuck." But I can't just not use skill books. It's one of the best parts of my power. "I'm still going to learn the [Jeet Kune Do] book after we stretch." Rationalization mode. Buy time. "You found some drawbacks," No kidding. Draw things out, think out loud, "but honestly if you'd learned aikido the normal way, through years of effort, don't you think you would have acquired the same desire for flexibility?" Huh, I have a point there. It's like a few years' jumpstart. "Actually, it might just be that mainlining all that knowledge is a little like spending a few weeks," Too short, "Or months focusing on the one thing. I can't say for sure, but I'd guess things will," Might, "Normalize in a few days as things sink in." And maybe things could get balanced out. "Or when more skills get added."

She takes a deep breath, drawing my eyes down and highlighting how much of a sweat she'd worked up skipping across town. Huh, I'm not sweaty. At all. Score another one for [Gamer's Body]. "Okay, I see where you're going." She resumes stretching. Back to copying her." So, by that logic if I'd spent the time to learn [Computer Programming] to the level the book gave me, then naturally the vocabulary would creep into my language. So, there are changes, but they're due to learning the skills quickly?"

Well, that's what I hope. "Right. At least I think that's right." And that reminds me. "Anyway, [Gamer's Mind] is already changing the way I think. Plus, when I swapped out the [Apprentice Undead Hunter] title, I could almost feel a hatred for the undead draining away. Maybe we just need to watch each other. Like spotting in lifting weights. We keep each other honest. Make sure we don't get overwhelmed, keep an eye out to see if the side-effects wear off in time or not."

"Good thing we're partners then," she says, relieved.

I toss in a few extra dips at the end of the stretching, just barely _eking_ out one last point of AGI. I've never spent points before, so it's a bit of a wrench, but [Jeet Kune Do, Level 2] is completely worth it. And I do have 33 points left if I need them later. Maybe it's the formless nature of the Art, maybe it's the rather large increase in my agility, but I don't feel all that different. [Gambling] has even less of an effect, but [Crafting] is a bit of a surprise. All the techniques, precise cuts and measured hammer blows and finally knowing the lock-stitch; the blueprints, greaves and sabatons and vambraces… I itch to try it all out. It kinda reminds me of the feeling when I figure out what costume I want to make next.

Taylor's doing a neat little front flip. The landing was a little rough, but still. Impressive. I guess she uploaded [Acrobatics], [Entomology], and [Gambling]. We should play a round of poker or backgammon sometime to test that one out.

We take a moment to discuss our new skills before giving them the test in an Illusion Barrier. Well, we take a moment to change back into heroic guise, of course.

Lady Bug doesn't even ask for her bat, she just wades right in, flinging zombies around by turning every sloppy attack against the corpses. Her nets keep us from facing too many foes at a time, and she's throwing the undead into each other like some absurd (yet totally functional) form of humanoid bowling.

I'm having a little harder time of it than her. [Jeet Kune Do] isn't really giving me a lot of options for turning my enemies' attacks against them. Or even for avoiding them. I mean, occasionally I get a flash of insight as I'm throwing a punch that let's me know I've ruined the super-telegraphed strike coming from the zombie I've just pummeled. The real benefits come from needing nearly no space to wind up a punch and the sudden grasp of brutally effective low kicks. I've got twice as many limbs to strike with and if/when a zombie gets right up in my face, I've got plenty of room to get a good hit in.

Zombie fighting is great training. [Jeet Kune Do] is up to 5, [Physical Resistance] made it to 5, [Power Strike] is level 10 now (and works _beautifully_ with unarmed attacks), [Light Armor Mastery] grew to level 3, [Sense Danger] is now at a still useless level 4, and [Dodge] is also level 4. Not only that, but [ID Create] and [ID Escape] finally leveled. Along with two more levels, [+2 STR], [+1 AGI], and [+1 VIT], I'm feeling badass. Taylor tells me she earned three levels of [Aikido]; two of [Combat Mapping], [Dodge], [Entangle], and [Light Armor]; and one each of [STR], [AGI], [VIT], and level.

"I also leveled my [Cryptography] to 6 during the fighting and I'm a good chunk of the way to 7," Taylor brags mildly as I set up our supper.

In combat? "How the hell did you manage to level [Cryptography] while we were fighting?"

Her proud smile looks a little tired. Can't blame her, it's been a long day. "Oh, I had some of my bugs encoding random words into a pig-pen cypher while we fought."

There's only one proper response to that. I stick out my tongue. "You know, you're a cheating cheater who cheats."

Even sandwiches can get old, so I brought a tray of veggies for supper. I think they're leftovers from a party at Mom's work, but the platter is still sealed with both hummus and ranch dip. Never tried hummus before. I quickly discover that it isn't my thing. Taylor doesn't seem to mind it.

"Yeah, but what's to stop you from working [Observe] while you fight? Or maybe I should learn [Chinese] and we could level that just by talking."

"You know, learning Chinese so we can practice together is a pretty good idea, but [Observe] isn't a skill I can grind in combat. I don't need the pop-ups blocking my view." Although, maybe if my [Sense Danger] ever becomes useful. Or maybe I can learn a [Blindfighting] skill… Something to think about later.

The rest of the meal was spent discussing where to get money to buy more skill books and ways to abuse Taylor's [Multitask] skill. Way too many ways to take advantage of that. I get a great idea to try and make an Area of Effect Damage Over Time skill using her bugs so we can do some serious farming for zombie parts. There's only two problems - Taylor's not really excited about probably leveling up again and she usually doesn't have enough bugs in the barrier to pull of my idea.

Which leads to a new idea. I can't store live bugs in my inventory, but any sitting on us when we transition come along. Arm already raised for opening the barrier, I patiently wait as Lady Bug layers both of us with as many insects as she can gather. We're more ambulatory balls of bugs than human by the time she runs out. I think the trickle of crabs joining at the end is just her needling me for demanding as many 'critters' as possible. "[ID Create]"

It works. As silence falls, millions of insects exploded off of us to attack half a dozen zombies in sight and doubtlessly dozens of undead in the distance. Lady Bug's skirt-nets trip and ensnare corpses as we clear out the nearest enemies. Her bat is back in use, [Rising Strikes] throw a few zombies into the air and I give them each an unarmed [Grounding Strike], usually with an elbow. It's fun, but [Power Strike] is easier and does more damage. And tripped zombies barely last a moment before getting a bat-delivered [Finishing Blow].

"Immediate area clear. I've got three on hold with [Entangle] on the ship and bugs on forty-two others throughout the zone," she reports as the last of the initial swarm fades. "My bugs are chewing as best they can, but is it doing anything?"

I can already see their health bars slowly shrinking, but more information is always welcome. There's a few cocooned zombies nearby. "[Observe]."

[Zombie Lvl 6]  
[HP: 494/600 MP: 37/37]  
[A walking corpse. No matter how it died, it hates the living, attacking and eating their flesh. Although it's slow, its strength is twice as much as when it was living.]  
[Current Effects: Swarmed DoT]

"Yeah, it's working. It's showing up as a DoT effect and its hit points are slowly going down. Does that mean you got the skill?"

We both clear a few pop-up during the lull. "Oh yeah. I got!" Perfect. "I even get to name it."

I'm a little jealous. With her powers she can invent new maneuvers like this and make up amusing skill names for them. I doubt 'hit them in the face twice then the chest' will ever count as a nameable skill. "So what did you name it?"

"Swarm of Doom!" Wow does she sound pleased! "Does pretty much what you'd predicted, AoE and DoT… speaking of the DoT, how fast are the zombies going down?" Lady Bug pauses to scoop up a few [Soul Shards].

A quick ten-second count off my watch and a few [Observes] to get exact numbers. The math is simple enough, but I double check that it's consistent between targets. And how long that would take to kill them. "Looks like 2 to 3 HP per second, maybe five or six minutes and you'll take down every zombie in the zone."

"Okay, that's cool," her voice sounds pleasantly surprised. "So… smash a few while we wait?"

"You bet." I wasn't exactly planning on just standing around waiting. And this [Jeet Kune Do] stuff is _fun_. The nearest netted zombie will do. "That one."

As their health was whittled away, each zombie took fewer hits to down. Shortly, even a weak punch is one-shotting them. "They're going now," Lady Bug announces. "There goes three, seven, fifteen, half gone now, but starting to get some fresh spawns." Infinite zombies would suck in the real world, but here in my Illusion Barrier, it just mean that the party don't stop. "Three originals left. Two. One. Gone."

With no threats in range, we both get some delayed alerts. I only got another level in [Jeet Kune Do] and [Power Strike], but it looks like Taylor's got a decent number of pop-ups. I'm guessing [Swarm of Doom] just got several levels.

"Shit. We didn't think this through."

"What do you mean?" Zombies die. We loot. Woot. What more is there to do?

"I killed forty-two zombies across the zone. We've got 23 piles of loot scattered all over the place, and one of them is a blueprint. Are we just going to write that loot off?"

"Oh," Fuck. And there's the downside to ranged attacks, especially AoEs. We can't just hole up in our nice safe bottleneck if we want our loot.

"Yeah, oh."

"I hate to leave the loot. Especially a blueprint." I don't even have to know what it's for. I'd take a blueprint for [Undead Flipflops] if it dropped. And we've been handling them easily now that we've leveled our combat skills. "We've gotten a lot better at killing them, and with your [Combat Mapping] they can't really sneak up on us."

"True." The crown nods. "We'll go get them and use my new [Swarm of Doom] to soften them up."

"Cool. Yeah, we should be good," if not great. We've got this. "Let's kill some zombies."

..ooOoo..

This may not have been my best idea. The zombies haven't had time for [Swarm of Doom] to chew down their health much and I'm pretty sure they're spawning faster now. Three or four zombies at a time is more than I can take without them getting in a few hits. And I'm burning through MP too fast to keep using [Power Strike] to finish them quickly. Thank God Taylor's holding back the horde some with [Entangle].

The falling darkness is just making things harder. Not only are the zombies spawning at level 8 now, if it weren't for Lady Bug's white and gold outfit reflecting the fading light, I might have hit her a few times on accident. I'm just about to switch to the [Firefly Augment] when she pops two glowsticks and has some flying insects float them over my head. Huh. I've got Ioun Stones. She's also marking some of the undead with fireflies. I try to avoid crushing her likely limited supply as I pummel the zombies, but I end up with glowing fists regardless. ...I bet this looks badass…

We're almost back to the tugboat we started on when Lady Bug suddenly stiffens. "James, something is happening…" There's a certain wary tone to her voice. "More and more zombies are spawning, a bunch more, and they're all converging on a single point, and it isn't us." She points off in the distance. Thankfully, the point she's indicating isn't that close to us. "They're… merging." I can see it a little now, dark shapes climbing on top of each other and melting into a huge form. It kinda looks like a giant zombie. "What is that thing?"

My question exactly. "[Observe]."

[Legion Zombie, Level 34]  
[HP: 15192/15200 MP: 1200/1200]  
[Assembly of zombies full of resentment. When a large amount of zombies feel threatened due to mass hunting, they merge into a Legion Zombie. It has no magical abilities, but has immense strength and stamina. It is, however, very slow.]  
[Current Effects: Swarm of Doom]

[Danger!]

"Oh SHIT!" Fuck! "It's a boss! Legion Zombie." Okay, the name isn't really useful. "Level 34!"

That explains it well enough. She grabs my hand. "James get us out of here! Now."

While some testing earlier showed that while loot left in a Illusion Barrier was lost forever and that bugs left behind would pop out in a few minutes, there's no I'd leave her alone with that thing for a second. My other hand snaps up and I bellow, "[ID Escape!]"

[You cannot escape from this area.]

My heart drops so far it almost nuts me. We're trapped. "Fuck! We're locked in until we kill it!

"Or maybe you're too low level with that skill," she almost begs. Fat chance of that working. Most games don't allow escape from boss fights. "Keep trying! I'll stall it." The heroic form of Lady Bug faces the putrid colossus. Countless dark specks gather around the massive form as she directs every insect she has towards it. It took over five minutes for her bugs to take down a [Zombie, Level 8]. I'm sure the increased surface area means more room for the insects to damage it, but still. It has a lot of health.

"[ID Escape!]" I try to force more… energy into the skill.

[You cannot escape from this area.]

No dice. And the monster is almost to us. If we don't get somewhere safe we'll be a smear on this things feet in less than a minute. "It's not working and we can't stay here. Come on! Let's get to the ship!"

"No, the ship's a deathtrap," Taylor immediately corrects. "That thing's too big, and the water's not that deep. He could wade in after us and we'd have nowhere to run. We need to circle around and give my bugs time to wear it down." She starts pulling me away from the Legion Zombie.

Running in circles isn't sustainable. The land forms an irregular semicircle and neither of us can exactly run on water or jump from ship to ship. We're able to run a hair faster than the beast's lumbering stride, but lose a little time scrambling over or zipping around smaller ships. Thankfully it can't just climb over the biggest ships.

"James? How fast is it going down?"

What does she expect? It's hasn't been that long. "Slowly." There's a bit more fear and bite in the word than I meant to share.

"How slowly?" Taylor guides us through a close turn.

"Too slowly. Taylor, it has over 15,000 HP. Your bugs are hurting it a little, but it will take hours at this rate." My first estimate was an optimistic forty-some minutes, but the enormous creature is slowly regenerating health. We could be here all night. It seems that [Gamer's Body] might let me do that, but Taylor wouldn't be able to. Maybe if I carried her? Would that let me grind STR and VIT? That may not be a bad idea… Nah. At least, not now. And maybe with weights instead.

"James I have a plan," Taylor offers in an uncertain tone. "It's risky, but it just might get us out of here alive. If you have any bright ideas to bring to the table, speak up now."

"I've got nothing but hit it 'til it stops moving, try to not die." It's better than waiting, but only barely. "You really have a plan to kill that thing?" I hope it's good.

"Your power thinks so. It gave me a [Tactics] skill for thinking of it." Her plan is simple but should work great. "I think it could work. We might actually live through this."

I've already decided to do it, but that wording sounds familiar. Really familiar. Ah. I got it! "I love your plan! I'm excited to be a part of it! Let's Do It!" I start laughing, but Taylor doesn't get it, so I reign it in quickly. "Seriously, it's a pretty good plan." But there is room for improvement. "I do have one suggestion to improve on it though."

"Spill it. I'm open to anything at this point."

If she ever meets my family, I'll have to warn her about saying things like that. "Before we do anything else I think we should switch back to [Apprentice Undead Hunter] and spend all our unsaved points on our stats." 30% boost to attack and defense could be just the thing to tip the scales in our favor. "Saved points won't do us any good if we're dead," Well, I think they won't, and I'm not willing to test it, "and the points I dropped on AGI earlier made a lot of difference."

"Hell yeah, we should do that!" It's odd hearing so much emotion from behind her faintly smiling white mask.

We don't really have time to stop and spend points carefully, but I know what I need. [+5 WIS] to start. Really should have done that earlier. 28 left. If that thing hits me I'm dead, even if I dump all my points into VIT. So putting any there now would be a waste. I guess 'fast' and 'hard' are what I need now. [+13 STR] and [+15 AGI]. My points, I'll miss you!

Taylor is already done spending her points. She leads the way as we keep running, but at least this time we have a goal. The bugs that couldn't even find room on the Legion Zombie start forming rough imitations of a human form to try and draw it off. I'm not sure if the monster can sense something off as it gets nearer them or what, but they never hold it's attention for long. Totally worth it, though. Every second counts while she frantically ties her skirt- and cloak-nets into one long rope.

A long straightaway hedged in by junk piles gives us our ambush point. "Right, James. This is where we split up. Follow the bugs to your hiding spot."

I want to say something about never splitting the party, but it's the best plan we've got. "Good luck, Taylor."

"Good luck, James. [Stealth]" she turns and sneaks away.

Voice commands are weird. Especially for that. "[Stealth]" But if it works… I find a slightly elevated hiding place by following the firefly trail. It might not be the most concealed spot, but it's a good angle for the ambush. Holding perfectly still as the Legion Zombie thuds on by highlights just how much [Gamer's Mind] is affecting me. The only time I've ever been more scared was at Fugly Bob's, only two days ago. And yet, no shaking. I'm ready and in control.

A much louder impact shakes the ground as Taylor's plan moves to the next stage. Springing from cover, I see the colossus brought low, a silken rope binding its ankles. I wonder if this counts as [Entangle] or if Taylor's getting a pop-up for [Giga-Entangle] right now.

"[Finishing Blow!]" Taylor screams as she smashes its right knee with her bat. And that's the focus of the plan. No other skill we have can deal out that level of raw damage. Sure, it's a little absurd to use more than one 'finishing' attack in the same battle, but it's not against the rules.

Punching where she's hitting with her bat would probably just get me clonked, so I focus on the left knee. Going unarmed lets me fire of more attacks per second, but calling out a [Finishing Blow] for every hit makes more use my new agility than I'd considered. Still, the beast's HP is falling at a respectable rate.

It doesn't last. The Legion Zombie doesn't even try to rise, it just snatches at Taylor.

"Retreat!" she screams, barely dodging. Or is that [Dodging]? Either way, she takes off, chased by the creature. It's amazing how fast it can pull itself along without rising. Scrambling away as fast as she can, Taylor's running out of space.

Dodging is one thing. Running away is another. And it's after her, not me. Hammering away at its legs isn't doing enough to draw aggro. The Legion Zombie reaches out, hand grasping around Taylor's form.

[Jeet Kune Do] draws my attention to a point on the monstrosity's ribs. "[Finishing Blow!]" Its hand twitches shut just short of my panicked friend. And it _turns_.

Goodie. I've got it's attention. Why did I want it again? Run away!

Taylor takes advantage of the opening to attack it from the rear. And that's the turning point. A little trial and error gives us a good rhythm, holding the enormous zombie's attention and running in turns. It still takes a good quarter of an hour to bring it down to a mere sliver of health.

A thought strikes me during my turn running. …you know, boss monsters usually drop awesome loot… and luck can give us a little extra edge on that… "[Inventory]. [Golden Scarab Augment]." The second command is superfluous, but just feels right. The weight from my helmet lessens and shifts as the [Hunter Beetle Augment] switches away. I try to ignore the fact that I'm suddenly the shiniest combatant present.

Call it a impulse brought on by the wardrobe change, but I turn early and charge the Legion Zombie, catching it by surprise. Both fists take it in the eye together as I trigger the last two [Finishing Blows] I can afford. It's not enough. I barely backpedal fast enough to avoid flashing teeth. A bite. It tried to bite me!

As I freeze from sheer audacity of it, the humongous monster finally shudders and dies. I'm still staring at the dissolving body when I register a strong impact to my chest. Before I can panic, I feel Taylor's arms wrap around me and it finally sinks in.

We won.


	16. James's Character Sheet - Arc 2

Character sheet for Beetle Knight as of the end of Arc 2 of Co-Op mode. Written by Faria Lyton and reposted here with permission.

* * *

 **James Barron aka Beetle Knight**

James Barron  
Apprentice Undead Hunter  
Level 14  
HP: 915/1085  
MP: 6/2570

Attributes:  
Str: 26  
Agi: 38  
Vit: 19  
Int: 39  
Wis: 15  
Luck: 5  
Unspent Points: 15

Skills:  
A Gamer's Body (Passive) Lvl MAX  
Grants the user a body like a game character.  
Health and general soundness of body are reflected as HP.  
Powers and special efforts use MP.  
Sleeping restores all HP/MP and relieves all status effects.

A Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lvl MAX  
Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through.  
Allows peaceful state of mind.  
Immunity to psychological status effects.

Blunt Weapon Mastery (Passive) Lvl 6  
Allows the user to freely handle blunt weapons.  
10% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons.  
5% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.

Chinese (Passive) Lvl 1  
Allows the user to read, write, speak, and understand Mandarin, Cantonese, and many other sub-dialects.  
At this level, the user has a pre-schooler's comprehension and will suffer misunderstandings between the various dialects.  
 _Zhōngguó shì dìqiú shàng zuì chángyòng de yǔyán de kǒuyǔ._

Craft (Active) Lvl 1  
A skill to make something.  
Crafted objects become better as mastery level rises.  
Chance to fail when crafting: 50%

Detect Enemies (Passive) Lvl 1  
A skill to detect hidden enemies.  
1% increase in chance of spotting a hidden enemy.

Dodge (Sustained) Lvl 7 / 100 MP per minute  
A dedicated action to avoid an attack.  
+70% to AGI while dodging.

Finishing Blow (Active) Lvl 5  
Allows the user to strike an incapacitated target for bonus damage.  
125% increase in critical rate.  
500% increase in attack damage.  
Can only be used on prone opponents.

Gambling (Passive) Lvl 1  
Knowledge of games of chance and stratagems for success. +1% LUK  
 _Lucky in cards..._

Grounding Strike (Active) Lvl 3 / 20 MP  
Knocks the target out of the air. 45% increase in attack damage per foot to ground.  
 _...and hard!_

ID Create (Active) Lvl 2  
Used to create instant dungeons.  
Stronger instant dungeons can be created according to level.  
Dungeons available:  
Empty  
Zombie

ID Escape (Active) Lvl 2  
Used to exit instant dungeons.  
Higher levels can be used to escape more powerful barriers.

Jeet Kune Do (Passive) Lvl 8  
A hybrid martial art with a focus on real-world combat and interrupting the opponent's attacks.  
Passively increases speed and damage of unarmed attacks by 80%  
Passively grants an 8% chance to disrupt the opponent's next attack within a second on a successful hit.  
 _When you're talking about fighting, as it is, with no rules, well then, baby you'd better train every part of your body!_

Knife Mastery (Passive) Lvl 6  
Knife Throwing (Passive) Lvl 1  
Light Armor Mastery (Passive) Lvl 5  
Observe (Active) Lvl 7  
Physical Endurance (Passive) Lvl 5  
Power Strike (Active) Lvl 11  
Rising Strike (Active) Lvl 1  
Singing (Passive) Lvl 1  
Sense Danger (Passive) Lvl 5  
Stealth (Sustained) Lvl 3

No established PRT rating


	17. Cutscene - Fortuna

Cutscene (Fortuna) was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Cutscene (Fortuna)**

My name is Contessa. An accident worlds away from here robbed a fell godling of Her **Foresight** and granted it to me. As Her tainted presence killed and warped my friends and family, everyone I'd ever known, and ripped holes between the very worlds, I attacked Her with a mere shard of metal pretending to be a knife. As I was about to end the twisted deity's foul existence, Her dark magic sealed a fraction of the **Sight** from me - the fraction that allowed me to see Her and Her only weakness.

Still, I was able to guide the hand of another to reduce Her to something between alive and dead with the memory of the one moment I knew when and where to strike Her. Even with Her threat ended, the instant of unfettered clarity before She shackled me had shown me another threat. This monstrous divinity was not alone. She had a mate. I had only ended Her threat. Not His.

The hand I guided offered to guide me as my visions, my **Path** , guides her in return. Between the two of us, we have raised an army empowered by strength stolen from Her voluminous corpse. We call ourselves Cauldron. Ever we refine our methods, increasing the survivability of our potions, and the sheer power granted to our tools.

I have walked a strange and **bloody Path**. Each step is only shown to me as the time comes, but my **Path** has never failed me, so I refuse to fail it. A marble dropped here. A faucet repaired there. An infant sundered in his mother's arms. I need not know why, only that my **Path** is bringing me one step closer to His death.

My **Path** is long. It has been nearly twenty years since I began this **Path**. Any doubts I ever may have had in my **Path** have now been washed away by the flood of proof it has given me. And the **torrents of blood** I have shed following it. There is no leaving my **Path** now.

Sometimes there are hours between steps, when I can pursue my own amusements. Sometimes the **Path** itself guides me to rest. And sometimes the **Path** occupies my every moment, keeping me active for days on end.

This **Path** has changed under my feet at times. For all the power of my **Path** , humans are chaotic. Sometimes, I must visit the same small place, a room or a yard or a park, insignificant in the greater world, three or four times. I can only assume that the petty humans have resisted the guidance of my **Path**. Sometimes, the number of steps left in the **Path** changes, and I know not why. Once, the number of steps fluctuated wildly for hours, rising and falling by the thousands and tens of thousands hundreds of times in a matter of seconds. The number settled, only slightly higher than before, but **the new steps burned bright in my mind**. Something was **different** about those steps. They were not to come due soon, but I was more aware of their coming than even the step just past the one I was on.

One day, my **Path** led me to steal a boy's pornography, water a petunia, and push a rather large man in front of a bus. And then the **pivotal steps** finally came. I purchased a newspaper and stood by a dumpster waiting for the next of these troubling few steps. The newspaper was sharply thrust between the spokes of a passing bicycle, throwing the youth on it several feet before he landed on his arm, skidded a few more feet, and collapsed. The next **step** brought my only true treasure into my hand. **God-slayer** , the only memento I have my homeworld, my birth-family. The shard-blade my mother had gifted me with, the primitive knife which slew Her. I **knew the next step even before the Path told me**. While the boy was insensate, I was to end him in the same way I was to end Her. **The Pivotal Step Burned In My Mind.** Take the primitive tool of my homeworld, and **thrust it into the base of his skull**. The clarity of **this one vital step** has only been matched by the potency of the **Vision** I had as a child, before She crippled me in Her last minute.

 **Do it. Kill him.**

 _Don't. Embrace Life._

Not a **step** , but… a _Choice_? The boy groaned, and shifted. There was no time to wait. I lifted my hand, knife at the ready. This boy, this child, had plagued me for… exactly fifteen years, since just over two years since our pawns formed the Protectorate, weighing unnaturally on my **Path**. It was time to end the aberration. **Just a little more blood on my Path.**

Maybe it was the reminder of being a child myself, and maybe it was the _Choice_. But for the first time in nearly two decades, I hesitated. And thus my _Choice_ was made. The **Path of Blood** I had walked for so long _shattered_.

My eyes were opened to the monster I had become, the monsters I had surrounded myself with, the monsters we had made and protected. I fled before the boy could see me, freely crying for the first time since my **Path** began. I needed to know how to fix it. _And the Path of Life grew before me, showed me how to correct the damage I had done, and how the world could still be saved._

This _new Path_ confounded me. I knew where my **first Path** came from, but this _Path_... As if in response to the question, I was _guided_ to an old forest in the wilderness. For three days I _lived_ from the land, eating and drinking from the natural bounty before me. Then I was led to an _ancient tree_ and rested beneath it.

My _dreams_ took me back to my old life. I'd been a girl among a poor and ignorant people. We had gods, none of whom I held to. The men had many: the Warrior God, the Storm God, the Forge God, and others. Women had few. The Hearth Goddess and the Lust Goddess, both minor. There was only one true _Goddess_ for women - the Mother Goddess. _She-Who-Is-The-World_ , Goddess of _Life and Renewal_. I had been blind. The technological marvels of the world I lived in now made my past life look crude and ignorant. I'd accepted 'aliens' and 'entities' over 'gods' and 'magic'. And now I knew the truth was so much more than that. I'd fought a demon with its own power, but tainted myself. It was time to embrace life. _She-Who-Is-The-World has called me._

Since then, I have spent every day _repairing the damage_ I caused while following the **tainted Path** She gave me. _She-Who-Is-The-World_ has given me a _new Path_ , and the **blood of the innocent** has never stained _this Path_ , and I cannot believe it ever will. And yet, I just know that _this Path_ will still lead to His demise.

 _My Path is clearer than ever before_ , and now I can feel how much longer _I will walk it_ , but it is still long, strange, and chaotic. Thousands of steps remain, but _each step is a delight_ , instead of a burden. I still perform the most inane tasks with no understanding of why I do, but now they _encourage life_ , rather than death. Blunt a blade, push an injured woman into a freezing creek, scratch the inside of a weapon's barrel. And _one particular step_ seems to keep recurring, like a dance with a stubborn partner. Enter a girl's room, and tamper with a coded notebook. I have no idea what the effect is supposed to be, but whatever it is, I hope she accepts the guidance soon. I am... uncomfortable being so close to where I _was given my True Path_.

But for all the _good_ I am doing now, for all that I have _put aside the monster_ I was, I know there is _more to do_ , and no redemption for one such as I, soaked in **blood from a Demon's Path**. _I will perform my duties. I will save the world. I will destroy the evil I helped create._

My name is Fortuna. There are 5,023 _steps_ , or 2 years 2 months and 16 days left until _the world is safe_. On that last day, the last step. _Cauldron will burn_ and, by my choice, I with it.

* * *

Note from HP: Personally I'm not very fond of Contessa. I regard her as a walking, talking deus ex machina that Wildbow used to justify his dystopian world and Cauldron's place at the center of it. She's also a thorn in the side of any fanfiction writer who wants to write in the Worm universe, because any character that is too successful has to deal with Contessa. That's why so many fanfiction writers have their protagonist no sell Contessa. However, I like this interlude. It changes the story from a two-point departure: (1) James Barron exists and has The Gamer ability (2) Taylor chooses to be Lady Bug, into a single point of departure: a meddling Gaia exists. While my original concept of Lady Bug didn't need Contessa's interfence, this cutscene is a better solution. It tidies things up while dealing with the problem that is Contessa in a unique way. So, huge kudos to Faria Lyton for this chapter.


	18. Scripted Encounters 3-1

Scripted Encounters 3.1 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Scripted Encounters 3.1**

After we settled down enough to stop hugging and yelling and exchanging back-slaps, Taylor and I dismissed the wall of updates that spawned while we were celebrating. More skills and stats, three levels, and one alert that's really interesting.

You've defeated the boss monster Legion Zombie.  
You've received the title [Zombie Slayer]

Zombie Slayer  
Drops from Zombie-type enemies increase in both quantity and quality  
+10 to initial level for skills acquired from skill books dropped by Zombies

Zombies can drop skill books? Apparently Taylor has just finished with her alerts, as we turn to the pile of stuff dropped by the Legion Zombie together. Four rounded bottles of a red fluid just a little too bright to be blood, a leather-bound book (I wonder…), and a stack of bills lay neatly on the ground. A quick count shows we've got $420 in tens. At least that's easy to split. I hold half out to her.

"Your power created cash?" Taylor raises her hand to her mouth and fakes a cough, "Bullshit."

"So, how about we hit up Book Brothers again after school tomorrow?"

"Oh yeah," Taylor sounds just as eager as I feel. "It's a… quest." She picks up the book and looks it over.

I guess that means I should look at the bottles. No window appears the moment my hand touches the first flask, so I give it a slosh. Definitely not blood. Not thick enough. "Observe"

Low Grade Recovery Potion - Rank: Normal  
A recovery potion. A low grade potion that instantly recovers 200 HP.  
Tastes like strawberries.

That's… awesome. I still don't know if First Aid will work on me, but this is great. Weird bullshit from my power making up for that little weakness. And I'm glad it's not cherry flavor. Ugh. The bottles join the other assorted loot from the day in my inventory.

I didn't have time to sort or count any of it earlier, but now I can see I'm up to 33 Teeth of the Dead, 15 Ribs of the Dead, 7 Skin of the Dead, and a whopping 51 Soul Shards. The blueprint we risked so much to save is for the Undead Shirt, which protects from damage and boosts VIT. It needs 10 skins, 2 ribs, and 5 teeth, so I'll probably make it later tonight or after school tomorrow. I've already got a shirt, though, so the pauldrons are a little more pressing.

"James, I think you should look at this," Taylor's holding the book out to me. There's a primitive painting of a sickly green-grey man on the cover.

You've obtained the skill book [Zombie's Hide]  
A magic to grant the user skin like a zombie. 30 MP activation  
Blocks .5% of physical, electrical, cold, and acid damage.  
Reduces likelihood of infection by disease or poison by 1%  
50 Additional MP used per minute.  
Warning! [Zombie's Hide] gives the user the corpse-like skin while active.  
Would you like to learn [Zombie's Hide, Lvl 1]  
Yes No

Okay, I want this. Gotta be honest there. Especially since that title can jumpstart it to level 11. But I've already got a few levels of Physical Resistance and Taylor's just squishy. "You should take it. I've already got some damage resistance."

"I have my bugs for Combat Mapping and Dodge. You're more our Brute; you should take the book."

"The Legion Zombie also dropped HP recovery potions. They might not even work for anyone but me. And it was your plan that took it down. You should take the book."

"Oh, is that what those perfume bottles were? Doesn't matter. The potions might work for me too. Not that we should rely on them or waste on checking, but your power made this book. It belongs to you.."

Polite's polite, but I'd swear it's like she doesn't want the skill. "How about we flip for it?"

"Fine, but loser has dibs on the next book that appears out of nothing."

$ 00 . 25

The coin flip favors Taylor, which doesn't seem to surprise her for some reason. What happens next does. "It says I can't learn any more skills yet. My INT is too low."

I can't be sure, but it sounds like… "Does it look like you've got as many skills as your INT score?"

"Status Window" Taylor's fingers dance across screens only she can see. "Huh, both Cryptography and Computer Programming claim to give me +1 INT, but my intelligence is showing as 33 + 1." Maybe they don't stack? "And as for skills… Look's like you're right. I have thirty-three skills." She looks at me expectantly, then sighs. "You aren't going to just take the book now, are you? Fine. One point to INT. Just enough to check."

Points are great, and saving them for the right time is important, but skills are _vital_. For the first time, I'm almost glad I didn't get half a dozen extra skills with my power. Almost. Taylor's Invertebrate Control and Multitasking are awesome. And I would _not_ say no to an energy blast power of any kind.

I've only seen it a few times now, but I'll probably never get tired of watching a skill book in action. Lights, sparks, wind, boing. Boing? The book reforms in Taylor's hands.

"What? Translation error?" Taylor sounds just as confused as I feel. "It says that since I don't have Gamer's Mind, it can't teach me skills in a language I don't know." She flips through the book, glancing over each page. "What the…"

"Do you mind?" It only takes one page to see what's wrong. There's no language on earth like this. I'd say it's almost like diagonal cuneiform, but I think the various colors matter. And some of the letters… _bend_ , almost like they're peeling off the page. Frankly, it hurts my eyes to look at it too long. "I don't think we're going to find a book that teaches this language. We could hire a..."

"No. We're not finding a linguist to spend years figuring out the language just so I can learn the skill. Go ahead and learn it now."

"Do I still get first dibs on the next book?" I joke as I switch to Zombie Slayer before pushing Yes.

If I thought learning Chinese or Jeet Kune Do was something, this is something _else_. There's a whole new… it's not a language. It's words, yes, but it's impossible motions, and unseeable colors, and _scents that can't exist_. And even more importantly, it's math that simultaneously agrees with and contradicts everything I've ever learned. It's… it's… it's too…

And suddenly it's all gone, all but one simple equation/phrase. "Zombie's Hide" My MP starts dropping even as I feel my skin thicken under my armor. I hop a few times and try a few punches to get a feel for it. It's almost like my skin has become a soft, pliable leather. Eugh. I'll use it in combat, but it feels way too weird to run constantly. It's still incredible. It's like no other power I've used. I release the effect. "That feels weird."

Taylor scans me from head to toe. "Well, you don't look any different. Whatever it does it subtle. That's good."

"It's off now. But yeah, doesn't seem to make me look different."

"James, what time is it?"

Huh. It _has_ been awhile since the sun set… I check my watch. "Shit. It's almost midnight."

"Shit. I'm going to be in for it," complains Taylor.

"You and me both." While my parents might not have noticed, it'd be too much to hope that Andy didn't. Maybe if I get home before one. And have a good story. "ID Escape!"

The fragmenting sky effect is less impressive under the stars, but it's still worth taking a moment to enjoy. A shard of black falls away from the low-hanging half-moon, brightening the night.

ID Escape's level goes up by one!

I idly comment on the boost as I swap to my civilian gear. The sudden chill of night air on my face is unbelievably refreshing. Huh, I guess I do still sweat some. Is that a good or a bad thing?

"I'm going to go swap out my costume." Taylor disappears around a corner again, leaving me to my thoughts.

...I hate when games make you just wait around for a few minutes. Final Fantasy V Mimic fight, jails in both Chrono Trigger and Fable, I couldn't even bring myself to finish so many others… Reviewing my character sheet barely occupies me for half a minute. My AGI is only one point lower than my INT. It's weird. I've always identified myself by my intelligence, and now I'm almost as bendy as bright. If I can't find a way to grind INT soon…

Taylor finally comes back, but she's still in her Lady Bug costume. "Did you decide to not change?" To be fair, we would be less likely to get mugged or anything if we head home in our cape clothes.

"No. Keep your voice down," she shushes me, "and I think you're going to want to put your costume back on. Someone - make that at least five someones - are sweeping the Ship's Graveyard."

There's nothing around here worth looking for. We're the most exciting thing to happen here in- oh. "You think they're looking for us?"

"How would I know?" She gives a mild shrug. "I think they're a gang. Can't tell which one, but there is one group of two and one group of three. They're armed and have their weapons out. Only one gun, but they all have knives, and one has a bottle. I think it might be a Molotov cocktail. Also by armed, I don't just mean they're carrying weapons. They have them out and ready. They're also prowling. They might not be looking for us, but they seem to be searching for someone or something."

I am _so_ glad I don't have to change the mundane way. If I had to find privacy and take three or four minutes every time I need to swap outfits, I'd never get anything done. "Inventory. Can you guide us around them?" We really don't have the time to be skulking about. On the subject of skulking, "And do you really think sparkly gold armor is best for stealth?"

"That's what the black side of my cape was supposed to be for," Taylor protests. Without the cloak, her outfit really doesn't carry the 'bug' part of her theme. Maybe we should carry some rope in the future, for stuff like that. "I'll deal. They're spread out far enough apart we should be able to get through. Plus we can always escape into one of your illusion barriers. Unless…"

Huh. We could just vanish right before they see us, wait for them to wander by. Actually, when we entered that last illusion barrier we were on the boat. Now we're on the beach. If I ever get a Running skill or something similar, I could probably fake teleportation fairly effectively. "Unless what?"

"Unless the reason they're looking for us is that someone has a power that detects when we're opening up pocket dimensions."

And _that's_ a terrifying thought. "It's possible, but maybe they just come out at night to patrol or maybe there's a turf war going on." I hope. "Who knows."

"Give me a moment. I want to try something. Maybe I can find out." Whatever she's doing, it causes her to freeze up and almost fold in on herself. "Nope. That's not working." Her tone betrays some pretty serious pain.

"Are you okay? You sound funny." Okay, I'm not mister tact, but I am concerned.

She waves me off, "I'm fine. I tried to eavesdrop on them through my bugs. I've got this Sense Mapping skill that should let me listen and see through my bugs, but I guess I need to work on leveling it some more." Even thinking about looking through compound eyes sounds painful to me. With the number of bugs I've seen Taylor throw around… ouch. "The group of three is heading this way. Would you mind storing my backpack?"

My inventory is still open from changing a moment ago, so it only take a moment. "Of course, I'll store it. Good idea."

"Okay, let's go. Stealth."

That's so weird. "I'm getting used to the other vocalizations, but… Stealth." How counter-intuitive is that? "Oh well, if it works…" I switch to Novice Hero to get the most from it.

"Most of the other skills seem to work better when called out."

Creeping around the two groups of punks isn't too hard. It's the _other_ groups Taylor notices entering her range that make it difficult. We have to stray way off to the west to get a little space. On the plus side, earned another level of Stealth. On the downside…

"James, either they're herding us somewhere or they're all heading to the same place."

Which we're probably getting near at this rate. "So, what do you want to do? We're planning to be heroes, and we're in costume. Sounds like the kind of thing we _should_ check out." We've got a crowd of punks practically gift-wrapped. I'm not really sure what's the average level for minions, but most adults I see are in the 10-14 range. I'm not exactly confident I can hold my own, but with Taylor on crowd control… "I'm not going to get in more trouble for getting home at one o'clock instead of twelve thirty."

"Your costume isn't ready," she protests. My costume isn't really that important, though. "If they just had knives that would be one thing. Too many of them have guns. One of them has something I'm pretty sure is a submachine gun." First target, I'm not leaving that in play if this turns into a fight. "Your armor won't stop bullets."

I never planned on it. "It doesn't need to. I've got Physical Resistance and can stack it with Zombie's Hide." 12.5%, one eighth reduction in physical damage total while I've got the MP to keep going at full force. Not even close to bulletproof, but it's a start. "Add in all the HP that I picked up leveling, and you're squishier than I am now. I regenerate. You don't." I'm not exactly eager to be the tank of our team, but I'm the best option we've got for now.

"Fine." There's a wide array of _tones_ women say that word with. This one says she agrees, but isn't remotely happy about it. "You're right. If they're hunting us, we really need to know that. If it's something else, it's our duty as heroes to find out what."

"Good. So what's the plan?" Okay, less nodding while wearing the Stag Beetle Augment. My head's all top-heavy. Feels weird, like I'm a bobble-head or something.

She has a plan. We drag a pile of bugs into a zombie-free illusion barrier and have them set up Taylor's skirt-net-rope so we can climb up to the roof. Opening the barrier gives me a level of ID Create. We switch back to reality once we've got a good vantage point. As we wait, Taylor wraps the rope around her waist for easy access. Thankfully, it's only a moment before she finds what she was looking for.

"They're passing us by, so good news: they're not after us." Taylor leans forward a little. I shift to be ready to snag her belt if she goes too far out. "And, it looks like they're ABB."

Let's see, we've moved west into the Docks. "That's not really a surprise. We're in their territory now. So now I open us another empty illusion barrier, we climb down the fire escape and follow them?"

"Yes, that's the plan. We're just gathering intel," she reminds me. "Be ready to open up an illusion barrier. If they spot us, we run. When we fight, I want it to be on our terms."

Well, I gotta agree with that. Following them is easier than avoiding them was, but still enough to earn another +1 Stealth. The streets are mostly empty at this time of night, aside from hookers and insensate winos. With every step we take, Taylor's swarm grows just a little.

"This way." She pulls me into one of those super-narrow alleys that a tallish man could climb just by bracing his legs on both walls at once. Ooh! There's a cat and some kittens! Before I can get too distracted, she speaks up again. "I'm staying back here. See if you can spot Lung or Oni Lee with Observe, but be careful."

I flash her a thumbs up and offer a silent prayer of thanks that my helmet is hiding just how sick I must look. Did she really have to remind me who I might be facing here? Oni Lee is a teleporter who leaves a clone behind for a few seconds. Just enough to get infinite uses out of the same grenade, acting as a one-man army of suicide bombers. Lung is the leader of the Azn Bad Boyz. Even without figuring in his powers, Lung managed to form a pan-Asian gang. Considering how racist Asians can be against each other, the man must have godlike charisma. And his powers are bullshit. He turns into a dragon. Over time, ramping up the longer a fight goes on, but still. He's soloed an Endbringer, and no one is really sure if he was at full power even then.

There's a decent horde of Asians in red and green all crowded around, names and levels floating above their heads. If it weren't for picking up Chinese earlier, I'd be completely confused by several of these names. It looks like they're ranging from level 12-16. A little stronger than I'd be happy with, but not enough to have me running for cover. I'm not sure what triggers it, but they all turn at once and face a newcomer.

Lung  
Level ?  
The Dragon of Kyushu

Fuck. Question mark levels are bad. Okay, the Legion Zombie was level 34, and I could see that back at level 11. Twenty-three levels difference, safe to assume at least a 25 level zone I can identify at a glance. So, at least level 40. Nope. Not fighting that. Not without a _damn_ good reason. I whisper a quiet "Observe" but don't learn anything new.

I wasn't really listening when I was reading the screen, but I tune make in just in time to hear, "...the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?"

My temper has always been… binary. Either nothing ever phases me, or just about anything has me seeing red. Now? I'm seeing red. But I'm also still in control. I'm so mad I want to rip his fucking pedocidal head off. But I know better than to charge head first into a crowd of enemies with a leader of uncertain level.

New Quest Alert: Save the Kids!  
Prevent Lung and the ABB from achieving their dark goal tonight  
Reward: 5000 XP, Increased Reputation with ?  
Failure: Injury, death, and/or loss of general reputation  
Bonus Goals: Save the kids without assistance  
Bonus Reward: 5000 XP  
Accept?  
Yes No

This counts as a good reason, right? I absently push the Yes button as I give myself over to the rage. Fuck this bastard. A wordless roar tears from my throat as I launch myself towards the crowd.


	19. Boss Fights 3-2

So... the name of this Arc is Boss Fights - plural. Join Taylor Hebert and James Barron and find out why. Beta by Faria Lyton.

* * *

 **Boss Fights 3.2**

Once James and I got over the shock of being alive, we both had a ton of pop-ups waiting for us. I received three levels, a ton of skills, and some welcome stat improvements. Then there was the loot: four perfume bottles filled with red liquid, a thick leather-bound tome, and stack of… money?

James picked up the cash and counted it. "Four hundred and twenty, in tens." He split the stack and offered me half.

"Your power created cash?" I raised a hand to my mouth and fake coughed, "Bullshit." I still took the money. Where had it come from? I stuffed the wad of bills into my utility belt. It felt weird carrying that much cash which was silly given that I was dressed in a sparkly gold costume.

James slid his money into his inventory. "So, how about we hit up Book Brothers again after school tomorrow?"

"Oh yeah! It's a…" Not a date. "…quest." I hurriedly picked up the book thankful that my mask was hiding my face. That could have been awkward. The book had no title, just a picture of a gray-green man on the cover. I read the pop-up that appeared.

[You've obtained the skill book [Zombie's Hide]]  
[A magic to grant the user skin like a zombie. 30 MP activation]  
[Blocks .5% of physical, electrical, cold, and acid damage.]  
[Reduces likelihood of infection by disease or poison by 1%]  
[50 Additional MP used per minute.]  
[Warning! [Zombie's Hide] gives the user the corpse-like skin while active.]  
[Would you like to learn [Zombie's Hide, Lvl 1]]  
[Yes] [No]

Oh, wow! I wanted it. I still hadn't learned the [Physical Resistance] skill yet, but it wouldn't be right. This was something that James's power had created. I'd already gained so much in the past few days. He was my partner, not my personal trainer. I extended the book to him. "James, I think you should look at this."

James stared at an invisible pop-up briefly. "You should take it. I've already got some damage resistance."

"I have my bugs for [Combat Mapping] and [Dodge]. You're more our Brute; you should take the book."

"The Legion Zombie also dropped HP recovery potions. They might not even work for anyone but me. And it was your plan that took it down. You should take the book."

"Oh, is that what those perfume bottles were? Doesn't matter. The potions might work for me too. Not that we should rely on them or waste them on checking, but your powers made this book. It belongs to you."

James looked annoyed, but was cheerfully polite about it. "How about we flip for it?"

"Fine." Not my preference, but I didn't want to argue with James either. "But, loser has dibs on the next book that appears out of nothing."

James pulled a quarter out of his inventory. "You call it."

"Heads," I called as it spun in the air.

James snatched the coin out of the air. "Heads it is. Your book."

That was my LUK. I wanted to lose the toss, so I won. Oh, well next book was his. I pressed [Yes] and the pop-up flashed a warning red.

[Your INT is too low to learn any more skills at this time.]

What the fuck? My intelligence was my second best stat. What did it mean my intelligence was too low? I dutifully read the message to James.

"Does it look like you've got as many skills as your INT score?" he asked.

"[Status Window]" My INT was 34 (33+1). Hmm, something was off with that. I moved to my [Skills] tab. "Huh, both [Cryptography] and [Computer Programming] claim to give me a +1 INT, but my intelligence is showing as 33 + 1. And as for skills… Looks like you're right. I have thirty-three skills." I glanced at James. "You aren't going to just take the book now, are you? Fine. One point to INT. Just enough to check."

Having our total number of skills limited by our INT was a bit of a bummer. INT was hard to train. Damn, now I was regretting [Knife Throwing] and [Singing]. When would I use those? I'm likely end up putting a lot of points into intelligence later, but one was enough to test things. I pressed [Yes], and felt a flow of something in my head. Propagate^2. _Coil+{Sour}_ ∈ **F-sharp**. Litmus?gREEN| transcend. BuzzΣ **DEATH** = _satori_ Δlemon.

[Translation Error]  
[You must either know this language or possess [Gamer's Mind] to learn [Zombie's Hide]]

"What? Translation error?" Learning to deal with bug senses literally drove me insane for a few days, that weirdness had been more disorienting than painful. "It says that since I don't have [Gamer's Mind], it can't teach me skills in a language I don't know." I flipped through the book and it was as bizarre as what I'd just experienced. The print is some kind of color-coded cuneiform that seemed to be crawling off the page. "What the…"

"Do you mind?" He took the book and looked through it. "I don't think we're going to find a book that teaches this language. We could hire a..."

"No." Obviously the Cthulhu-book was not for me. "We're not finding a linguist to spend years figuring out the language just so I can learn the skill. Go ahead and learn it now."

"Do I still get first dibs on the next book?"

I shrugged. If the other books were like this, then they were all for James. Really that was for the best. It was his power after all.

James tapped the air, and the book dissolved in James's hands. When the last sparkle vanished, James called out, "[Zombie's Hide]." He hopped around a bit and punched the air a few times. "That feels weird."

I looked him over. "Well, you don't look any different. Whatever it does it's subtle. That's good."

"It's off now. But yeah, doesn't seem to make me look different."

What now? We should probably get home. Uh-oh. Given that we'd just been in fight for our lives, slain a creature way more powerful than us, gained ridiculous levels, and won equally ridiculous loot, was it surprising that I'd forgotten the time? We'd started our last run well after sundown, and it had lasted quite a long time even before the boss zombie had spawned. Add in the time we spent running around until the rope was ready, and the time we'd spent fighting the boss… It must be well past my curfew by now.

"James, what time is it?" My watch was under my costume and not easily accessible.

He checked his wrist. "Shit. It's almost midnight."

"Shit," I agreed. I was supposed to be home by 10:30 PM. Even if we jogged all the way home it would be well after midnight. I'm pretty sure that my father would have forgiven me if I'd been a little late. Ever since the locker incident he'd treated me like I could break at any moment. However, I'd never pushed his boundaries this far. "I'm going to be in for it."

"You and me both." He laid a hand on my shoulder and thrust his hand in the air. "[ID Escape]!"

The sky above us shattered like we were on the inside of a snow globe that someone smashed. The effect lasted only a few seconds before fading. While still dark the clouds had thinned enough to reveal a half-moon hanging low near the horizon. It wasn't much light, but it would have been nice to have even that much when we'd been running from the boss zombie.

"Hmm, [ID Escape] just leveled." James pressed some unseen buttons, and his costume started to vanish.

Ulp. Almost naked James. "I'm going to go swap out my costume." I retreated around a corner, so I could change in privacy. I'd worked up a good sweat during the course of the boss fight, and even a few seconds of night air on my bare skin gave me the shivers. I was also a little annoyed that James hadn't given me a chance to save my best bugs. I didn't care about most of them that we'd left behind in the instance, but I would have liked to have saved the black widows, fireflies and a few others. However, I didn't want to wait five minutes for them to be released.

I picked up my makeshift knotted rope and coiled it. My skirt-nets weren't too much of a loss, but the two pieces of cloth that made up my cape annoyed me. They were made of two layers: one black and one red with black spots, sewn together. I would need Parian's help to get the silk dyed just right. Plus it was an essential piece of my costume. Without the cape I looked like a golden knight instead of Lady Bug, but there was nothing I could do about it here. I tossed the coiled up 'rope' into my backpack. Maybe I could cut the silken-bound knots apart at home. However, that would have to wait. While I'd been changing, I'd also been organizing the local bugs to set up my bug-dar. They'd found a problem. I swapped back into costume and headed back out to James.

He blinked at me. "Did you decide to not change?"

"No." I shook my head at him. "Keep your voice down, and I think you're going to want to put your costume back on. Someone – make that at least five someones – are sweeping the Ship's Graveyard."

"You think they're looking for us?"

I shrugged trying to be nonchalant, but I was a bit worried. "How would I know? I think they're a gang. Can't tell which one, but there is one group of two and one group of three. They're armed and have their weapons out. Only one gun, but they all have knives, and one has a bottle. I think it might be a Molotov cocktail." My bugs smelled gasoline. What else could it be? "Also by armed, I don't just mean they're carrying weapons. They have them out and ready. They're also prowling. They might not be looking for us, but they seem to be searching for someone or something."

"[Inventory]," and the James peepshow started up again. "Can you guide us around them? And do you really think sparkly gold armor is best for stealth?"

"That's what the black side of my cape was supposed to be for." Until I sacrificed all my nets to make a rope. That had been worth it, but from now on a rope was going into my standard carry. "I'll deal. They're spread out far enough apart we should be able to get through. Plus we can always escape into one of your illusion barriers. Unless…"

James was now dressed in his horrible costume again. "Unless what?"

"Unless the reason they're looking for us is that someone has a power that detects when we're opening up pocket dimensions."

"It's possible, but maybe they just come out at night to patrol or maybe there's a turf war going on. Who knows?"

"Give me a moment. I want to try something. Maybe I can find out." Over the past few days I'd been practicing opening up to what my bugs had to tell me about taste and smell. I'd only leveled up [Sense Processing] once, but it felt like I was making progress. I moved more bugs in close to the two groups that I was monitoring and tried to open myself up to what those bugs were hearing. Pain and cacophony. A thousand fingernails on blackboards competed with Madison's sing-song voice. Sounds were not merely garbled, but mangled and mutilated. I tried to make sense of all that while ignoring the shrill pain of dentist's drill in my brain for all the good it did me. "Nope. That's not working."

"Are you okay? You sound funny."

"I'm fine." Really the pain was already backing off now. "I tried to eavesdrop on them through my bugs. I've got this [Sense Mapping] skill that should let me listen and see through my bugs, but I guess that I need to work on leveling it some more." I took a few deep breaths of the cold night air. That helped a lot. I'd like to wait a bit longer both to let my head clear and to wait for my bugs to return from the illusion barrier, but that option wasn't available to us. "The group of three is heading this way. Would you mind storing my backpack?"

"Sure. Good idea." James took my backpack from me and shoved it into his inventory.

"Okay, let's go. [Stealth]."

"I'm getting used to the other vocalizations, but..." James shrugged. "[Stealth]. Oh well, if it works..."

I shrugged. "Most of the other skills seem to work better when called out." However, it did feel silly.

Dodging two groups of unknown hostiles in the maze of the Ship's Graveyard didn't seem like it would be that difficult. Unfortunately as we left those two behind others came into range. While I did earn a [Stealth] level from avoiding the unknown groups, we had to detour to stay away from them. We escaped the beach, but were forced to detour west into the run down and poorly lit streets of the Docks area. However, the detours weren't getting us where we needed to go. In fact…

"James, either they're herding us somewhere or they're all heading to the same place."

"So, what do you want to do? We're planning to be heroes, and we're in costume. Sounds like the kind of thing we should check out. I'm not going to get in more trouble for getting home at one o'clock instead of twelve thirty."

Maybe that was true for James. My father was undoubtedly waiting up for me, but I had more important concerns. "Your costume isn't ready. If they just had knives that would be one thing. Too many of them have guns. One of them has something I'm pretty sure is a submachine gun. Your armor won't stop bullets."

"It doesn't need to. I've got [Physical Resistance] and can stack it with [Zombie Hide]. Add in all the HP that I picked up from leveling, and you're squishier than I am now. I regenerate. You don't."

My armor would _probably_ stop bullets, but I had never tested it. More importantly, even if my armor did stop bullets from punching holes in my body, being shot could still cause me a world of hurt. Since James regenerated, he actually did have a point. I was just reluctant to admit it. His powers were also untested against gunfire, and he'd approached me. I felt like it was my duty as the senior hero not to let him out before he was ready. Although his costume wasn't ready, I couldn't really deny that James was ready after the boss zombie. Something was obviously up tonight, and I couldn't walk away and call myself a hero. "Fine. You're right. If they're hunting us, we really need to know that. If it's something else, it's our duty as heroes to find out what." Oh well, I was already in trouble with my father anyway.

James gave me a nod of approval. "Good." His helmet at least made him look serious and, he blended better than I did into the shadows. "So what's the plan?"

Fortunately, I had a plan. I directed a bunch of bugs land on us, and had James open up an empty illusion barrier. I used my bugs to carry my makeshift rope up and over the lower rung of the fire escape. That let us snag it and pull it down so we could climb up and on the roof. From there we broke back into reality and waited to see if the groups would converge on us and climb the roof or not. While we waited, I coiled the rope around my waist and tied it into an impromptu belt.

We didn't have to wait long. "They're passing us by, so good news: they're not after us." I caught a glimpse of them in the lights shining through the tenement windows as they crossed below us. Even from a distance they looked Asian, plus they were wearing red and green. "And, it looks like they're ABB."

"That's not really a surprise. We're in their territory now. So now I open us another empty illusion barrier, we climb down the fire escape and follow them?"

"Yes, that's the plan." We could cut and run now, but that wouldn't be very heroic. "We're just gathering intel. Be ready to open up an illusion barrier. If they spot us, we run. When we fight, I want it to be on our terms."

Now that we were behind the ABB gang members, following them proved to be ridiculously easy. The streets were all but abandoned. Plenty of buildings sat abandoned for anyone to squat in for the night. Other than the gang members we followed we only passed a few cheap whores and unconscious drunks. We avoided them and stuck to the shadows. I picked up another [+1 Stealth]. Apparently following armed gang members was as good for leveling up [Stealth] as hiding from them. As we walked, I continued pulling in bugs to my swarm. It wasn't as strong as the one I had against Legion Zombie, but it was gathering strength. My outlying bugs reported other groups converging in from all directions. As well as a congregation in the street.

"This way," I whispered to James before pulling him down a narrow alley that was little more than a footpath between two buildings. From what my bugs were telling me this would take us right up to the meeting place and was empty except for a mother cat and her litter of kittens. When we reached the end of the alley, I stopped well before the end. I could hear some voices, but they weren't speaking English. I also had a count of the number of people out there, eighteen of them, with more still joining. "I'm staying back here. See if you can spot Lung or Oni Lee with [Observe], but be careful."

James didn't even speak. He just flashed me a thumbs up. The alley was so narrow that I had to press up against the side of a building to let him squeeze through. While he did his [Observe] thing, I kept pulling in bugs and spreading them around the ABB members. Attack was not my plan. Oni Lee was a teleporter who left a clone behind for a few seconds before it turned to ash. Lung was a pyrokinetic that got stronger the longer a fight lasted, eventually turning into a dragon. Either one would be a nightmare for us to fight. However, it certainly couldn't hurt to be ready. I tasked some of my more useless flying bugs to ferry in more and more fire ants from a nearby nest. I had tons of 'useless' bugs like moths, beetles, and small spiders. I sent them on suicide missions down the barrels of guns. Hopefully, they would gum up the works. I filtered out the more dangerous bugs, and assigned wasps to carry my black widows and brown recluses. Better to be prepared and not need it, than to need them and not be prepared.

I noticed James stiffen up at the same time the crowd outside all turned and oriented in one direction. Right, something was obviously happening. A new person joined my map, taller than the others with a metal mask. Both Lung and Oni Lee wore masks, but I was pretty sure that Oni Lee was short. The new person lacked a shirt, which made this Lung. Everyone else fell respectfully silent. Many of them bowed deeply. Then Lung started speaking. I couldn't really make out what he was saying. Something about Ruby Dreams, which was ABB's not-so-secret casino, but his accent made it hard to make out what he was saying. I moved some brown recluses onto the cuffs of his jeans and positioned wasps and hornets in the shadows close to him.

The anger in his voice was clear enough, and as he continued to rant his voice grew louder. "…the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?"

What the fuck? They were going to kill kids?

[New Quest Alert: Save the Kids!]  
[Prevent Lung and the ABB from achieving their dark goal tonight]  
[Reward: 5000 XP, Increased Reputation with ?]  
[Failure: Injury, death, and/or loss of general reputation]  
[Bonus Goals: Save the kids without assistance]  
[Bonus Reward: 5000 XP]  
[Accept?]  
[Yes] [No]

Well that was new. I'd never received a quest alert before, but the latest weirdness from James's power was trivial compared to child-murder. I pressed [Yes]. Quest or no quest, I wasn't going to let the ABB kill kids. I was getting a bonus reward for doing what I planned to do anyway. The real question was how the hell we were going to stop them. The thugs didn't scare me. I think I could take the gang members with my bugs alone. More painful for them since I didn't have my skirt-nets, but I could do it. The problem was Lung. Kyushu 1999 – nearly ten million dead and two left standing: Leviathan and Lung. Empire Eighty-Eight had a dozen or more capes, many of them heavy-hitters. The ABB had Lung, and they were evenly matched. Hmm, I still had my makeshift rope tied around my waist as a belt. Silk was at least somewhat flame resistant. However, Lung's pyrokinesis ramped up, and he wasn't stupid like the Legion Zombie. He'd see it coming.

Suddenly James was in motion. Had he completely lost his mind? That was Lung. Yet, James charged him screaming with inarticulate rage. After one split second of hesitation I followed him into madness. With my physical body I sprinted right behind him, and in thousands upon thousands of tiny bodies I unleashed my wrath upon them. In a way I was merciful. I held back my more poisonous insects from the ABB thugs. While I had a few epi-pens I didn't want to risk killing anyone by a bad allergic reaction. So I merely ravaged them with what I'd named my [Swarm of Doom], a thousand fold attack by cockroaches, mosquitoes, beetles, fleas, spiders and ticks. I both heard gunfire and sensed it through my bugs, only one person aimed at me and I dived and rolled even as his gun misfired. Most of the guns misfired. One that I'd jammed full of bugs backfired, and the thug collapsed to the pavement screaming and holding his hand. I didn't stop every gun. James took a few hits, but kept running.

Meanwhile, I sent my deadly bugs at Lung. How hard to hit him? I didn't want to kill him, but if I held back then he would kill James. So I hit him hard with dozens of my nastiest bugs: bees, wasps, black widows, and brown recluses along with all the fire ants that I could muster. None of which were arriving fast enough. While his minions were screaming, twin streams of pyrokinetic fire shot out from Lung's hands above the heads of his minions searing huge swathes of my bug swarm.

[Your reputation with the Azn Bad Boys has decreased!] pop-ups flashed repeatedly in front of me. Thankfully they were the type of pop-up that quickly faded on its own and didn't have to be acknowledged.

[Reputation with the Azn Bad Boys has changed from 'Unfriendly' to 'Hostile'.]

Right. I got it. They didn't like me. I had other problems. A screaming man wielding a pair of those L-shaped tonfa sticks ran towards me. I stepped up, met him with a [Rising Strike] and aimed him at Lung. He went flying, but fell far short. A part of me registered that I'd hit a human being just like a zombie and probably broke bones. I'd worry about that later when we weren't in the middle of a mass melee. Meanwhile, James had made short work of the first gangbanger in his way with a series of low kicks and advanced on Lung. James might have had more trouble, but the crowd was parting to allow Lung through. That just made sense. No one with half a brain would stand between an angry fire-throwing Lung and his intended target.

I ignored still more pop-ups and focused on the fight. I had bugs on Lung now, spiders biting, bees stinging, and thousands of less dangerous types attacking. I wasn't sure how much good they were doing. Lung didn't seem to care or even notice, and the few ABB members remaining between him and James scrambled to get out of the way. I directed my bugs to get nasty and attack softer tissue: eyes, nose, ears, and even crawl inside his clothes to attack his junk. I sent stink bugs up his nose and had them use their spray inside his nasal passages. While I was doing that, I tried to make my own way to Lung. Most of the ABB gang members had either fled, or were trying stop, drop and roll to kill the biting bugs. However, two of them were converging on me despite everything. I dubbed them Shorty and Fatty. The names fit and I didn't have time to be clever.

Shorty had a butterfly knife which made him the more dangerous of the two in my mind. [Aikido] helpfully offered me too many options for disarming him. I preferred the added range with my bat and laid into him with a [Power Strike]. I caught his forearm with a loud crack and he lost the knife while screaming in pain.

And Lung suddenly had a clear path to James and lit him on fire with twin blasts from his hands. "I'm going to fucking kill you!"

"No!" The scream came from my voice at the same time a pained cry came from James. His clothes were on fire and he flew back, landed hard, and rolled away.

What had I done? I'd held back some from fear of killing Lung, and gotten James fried. I sicced every last poisonous bug I had on Lung: bees, hornets, wasps, black widows, brown recluses, and more. If it bit or stung I sent it after him. Meanwhile, I turned my back on Fatty and sprinted for all I was worth towards James and Lung.

Lung quite literally exploded. He turned into a ground zero of blast that set fire to his clothes, several pieces of trash, and two of his own gang members. I felt a flash like air from a hot oven roll over me. I lost almost every bug in his immediate vicinity. The few that didn't die instantly were crippled by explosion. Correction – almost all my bugs. A handful of aptly named fire ants had managed to get under his eyelids. They along with a few bugs inside his ear canals survived. I directed them to continue biting and stinging Lung's eyeballs and eardrums.

We three were the only combatants left. With the exception of the two guys that had been caught at ground zero of Lung's fireblast and weren't moving the rest of the ABB, including Fatty, had fled the scene. James was down. Being prone saved James from some of the blast, but he was still on fire and rolling to smother the flames on his clothes. Meanwhile Lung seemed stronger than ever. The silvery scales had spread to cover more than a third of his body now. He'd also gained a little in height. Meager scraps of clothing still clung to his body but were burning away.

I needed to buy James time, so I sicced what bugs I had left at Lung. He had fried my best bugs in that fireball. I still had bugs that could bite and sting, but I doubted fire ants, horseflies, fleas, mosquitoes and other pests would finish him. Still I had to try, and sometimes quantity was a quality of its own. I layered them on him, stinging and biting every part of him not covered in scales.

Lung laughed, a deep throaty chuckle that didn't sound quite human any longer. Fire danced around his hands, and he bathed himself in his own flames. My bugs died in the thousands, even the ones that had crawled into his eyes, ears, and up his nose. The flame stuck to his skin enveloping Lung in an aura of flame that put an end to any more insect attacks. He beckoned me with his hand daring me to come to him.

I charged him and screamed out, "[Rising Strike]!" as I met him. I swung my bat a little lower than needed for the maneuver.

Lung caught my bat in one hand, wrenched it out of my grasp and tossed it aside. "My turn." I thought James was fast. Lung had speed and power out of nowhere.

I barely dodged his fist only to take a knee to my abs which sent me flying. At least [Aikido] was good for turning my flight into a somewhat controlled roll of a landing that ended up with me back on my feet. I hurt all over, and something felt wrong where he'd kicked me, but I was still in the fight.

So was James. He'd put out the flames and was back on his feet. His costume was in tatters, burnt and smoldering with huge rents all through it. The tin chest plate had come loose and flopped about as he moved, yet his skin beneath didn't show signs of burns or abrasions. Instead his skin was the gray-greenish color of a zombie's rotting flesh. I had bugs on him again, and he settled right into a fighting stance like he hadn't just been flambéed a short while ago.

Bat gone. Bugs all useless or gone. Rope tied around my waist and too slow to deploy. What did that leave? I faced Lung. "Is that the best that you can do?" I copied what he'd done earlier and beckoned him to come and get me.

He took the bait and charged me. "Kill You!"

Lung had both speed and power, but by charging me he was committed. Even knowing it was coming he still almost punched me, but I ducked under his fist, spun, grabbed his flaming arm, and pulled down while I popped my hips. Foot here, arms there, my center below his, and toss – Lung went flying right toward James.

"[Grounding Strike!]" bellowed James as he brought a fist down on the back of Lung's head and smashed him to the ground.

Lung's fire aura flickered and died. I pounced on him with more bugs even as I charged towards him. Lung ignored the bugs and backhanded James hard.

James staggered backwards, but recovered and snapped a kick at Lung's knee. "[Power Strike!]"

I hurriedly recovered my bat and charged, but the fight was one-sided. James kicked and punched to no obvious damage, but every one of Lung's attacks almost knocked James down. If there was a bright side, it was that Lung's attacks grew more obvious as he got angry. I joined in laying into Lung. Nothing seemed to hurt him, but he wasn't getting bigger, his scales had stopped spreading, and his attacks were slowing down. Were we winning? Suddenly Lung stopped and just roared at the heavens. Fire danced around him killing my bugs again, and then he detonated.

A wave of heat and pain hit me like a truck, and I found myself flying backward. I managed to tuck myself into a ball, so that I half-rolled and half-bounced along the ground until I met a brick wall hard. If I was a cartoon character, I'd have little tweeting birds circling around my head. Instead I had a ringing in my ears and pain all over my body.

Even while that was going on another part of me maintained control of my bugs and even reestablished my [Combat Mapping] after the fireball. James was still alive and moving. Lung still stood right where he was, but even as I lay there he swayed back and forth and then fell down face first on the pavement. The familiar cleansing sensation of multiple level ups washed all the pain and exhaustion from my body. We'd won?

[Quest Completed!]  
[You have gained 5000 XP]  
[Bonus Completed!]  
[You have gained 5000 XP]  
[Your reputation with the Azn Bad Boys has decreased!]  
[Reputation with the Azn Bad Boys has changed from 'Hostile' to 'Hated'.]

Of course. I could do without James's power stating the obvious, however I couldn't complain too much. I still hurt, but I counted myself lucky that I could move at all. I pushed myself up and looked over to see with my own eyes what my bugs and James's power had already told me. Lung was indeed face down, and James was walking toward me.

"If you ever do anything that crazy again, I'll kill you myself!" I hugged him hard and then stepped away. Too much hugging. Plus I wanted to slap him, but we'd taken out Lung...

"If I ever do something like that again, you probably won't get the chance!"

I sighed. I wasn't angry at James. I just really needed this night to be over. However, it wasn't going to be over any time soon. We'd taken down _Lung_. We needed to call the Protectorate. Hopefully one of the two thugs had a cellphone. I glanced at the two bodies on the pavement. Shit. Those were people, not zombies. I had to focus. I was in charge.

"Beetle Knight. Check out the two downed gang members. Use [Observe]. If they're bleeding out you might have to use those red bottles." I was going to add check them for cellphones, then I wised up. There were plenty of lit windows around us. People had been watching this fight like it was entertainment. Someone would have called it in by now. "Be discreet. We've got an audience." I gestured up at the lit windows. "I'll secure Lung."

James looked at me for a moment. Obviously he was also having trouble changing gears. "Right. I'll go do that."

I removed my makeshift rope from my belt. It might not hold Lung for long if he woke up, but silk was somewhat fire resistant. It was scary approaching Lung. I half-expected him to leap back up like some kind of horror movie monster, but better to have him tied. It would be a little safer. Since he was facedown, I hogtied him: wrists together behind his back, then used the ends of the rope to tie his ankles together. I knew nothing about knots, so I just tied them tight. I didn't have to worry about cutting off his circulation. He could regenerate. While I worked, I cleared the pop-ups around me, reading them quickly and dismissing them with a quiet "[Close Window]". Levels. Skills. Stats. I finally got [Physical Resistance] and was too numb to process it.

In the process of putting Lung in a hogtie I found our loot: some kind of earring made out of a tooth and four shiny triangular dragon scales. I stowed them in my utility belt. I didn't want James to use his [Inventory] while we were being watched by who knows how many people. Some of them had cellphones out. This would be all over PHO tomorrow.

While my hands were busy tying knots, my bugs weren't idle. I'd been pulling them in and throwing them at Lung. With the fight over I pushed them out to extend the coverage of my [Combat Mapping]. I was just being cautious in case Oni Lee or someone from the ABB thug auxiliary decided to show up. I didn't find the ABB, but what I found was potentially worse – four capes along with three gigantic creatures on a nearby rooftop watching us. Wasn't this night from hell ever going to end?

"Beetle Knight, keep your guard up. We're not alone."

* * *

Author's Note: I moving most of the game mechanics out of the storyline. For those of you interested Taylor gained:

[Level +7] [Aikido +3], [Blunt Weapon Mastery +2], [Combat Mapping +3], [Dodge +2], [Light Armor Mastery +2], [Mental Control Area +1], [Physical Resistance 1], [Power Strike +1], [Rising Strike +1], [Swarm of Doom +3], [Stealth +2], [Tactics +3], [AGI +1], [WIS +1], [1 Stat Points for INT +1]


	20. Scripted Encounters 3-2

Scripted Encounters 3.2 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

This is the James PoV of events in Boss Fights 3.2.

* * *

 **Scripted Encounters 3.2**

Charging a crowd of something like thirty people, many of whom have firearms, is idiotic. Especially if you don't let your partner know what you're doing. Thankfully, Taylor's [Combat Mapping] lets her know the moment I lunge forward and act accordingly. Still stupid, though. I should think more before I go for the XP when losing doesn't just involve reloading.

Several guns are aimed at me almost immediately, even as a swarm of insects floods the alley. Shit. I was kinda hoping the yell would at least startle a few. Oh, look, that one isn't lined up right. Yay for screaming like a moron. A whispered [Zombie's Hide] probably does significantly more to keep me alive.

Many, maybe even most, of the guns misfire. Taylor most have done something with her bugs. I know my LUK stat isn't good enough to have caused that. One gun practically explodes in one thug's hands. Given the way he screams, clutching his ruined hand, I don't think he'll be a threat. But for all the misfires and a decent number of misses due to insect-based 'smoke' screen, I can't help but take some hits.

[-87 HP] A burning pain shoots through my side, just past the edge of my half-assed chestplate.

[Danger!]

[-17 HP] My tin vambrace deflects a glancing blow, but takes a nasty gouge in the process.

[-72 HP] [-71 HP] [-71 HP] Three shots to the chest are barely slowed by the thin metal sheet strapped to my torso.

[-86 HP] Bone grates against red-hot metal for a moment in my right shoulder, locking it in place before [Gamer's Body] erases the bullet and seals the wound.

[-16 HP] ...that was right between the eyes. Oh God, that was right between my fucking eyes! If it weren't for my helmet…

Lung blasts twin torrents of flames into the air, roasting thousands of Taylor's insects right over his troops' heads as I reach my first foe. Two quick kicks to his knees and one to his left shin set him up for a punch, he collapses, his knee reversed. Well. That was… something. I really thought it'd take more than that. Oddly enough, I earn a level of [Chinese] from hearing his moaned cursing.

[18 XP]  
[You've gained 1 level.]  
[Fickle fortune has favored you, your LUK has increased by 1.]

[Your reputation with the Azn Bad Boys has decreased!] is displayed on dozens of windows that flash into existence and fade quickly. As I swipe away the last few windows to hurry it up, a screaming Asian soars through the air and falls bonelessly at Lung's feet. Probably Taylor's [Rising Strike]. That may be a little overpowered against normal humans...

[38 XP]  
[Reputation with the Azn Bad Boys has changed from 'Unfriendly' to 'Hostile'.]

...It's not like I was expecting them to not hate us after this, but it's a little disheartening to see it stated so bluntly. At least they stopped shooting once I got into melee range.

The lower level gangsters between Lung and I thin out as he begins striding towards me. He started out taller than me, but I think he's grown a little. And he's got spirals of fire orbiting each arm. Why did I think this was a good idea? I'm not sure if the few punks I punch out of the way are just trying to clear the way for their boss, or if they're really not that tough, but even the more stubborn thugs only take two or three hits. A number are attempting to escape the swarming insects by rolling on the ground to crush them. They just get kicked out from underfoot.

A particularly skinny ABBer with a jian, a Chinese straight sword, seems like the last man between me and the growing dragon-man. A series of rapid thrusts has me backpedalling to avoid getting skewered. [-43 HP] is lost as he stabs through my left bicep. But he over-extended to make that strike. The rapid impact of my fist on his face doesn't do much to alleviate the pain in my arm, but the unnecessary stomp to his groin as I yank the sword back out [-16 HP] makes me feel better about the whole mess. As does the [38 XP].

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" As two bursts of flame race towards me, I catch a glimpse of Lung's mask, the dancing light lending an aspect of rage to the fixed metal face. [Danger!] I barely manage to jump backwards as they slam into my chest. [-450 HP] [-450 HP] flashes across my vision as I sailed back from the burning Asian man-giant. To add insult to injury (and more injury, because why not?), I spin wildly through the air and can't adjust to soften my landing much. [-35 HP]. If at all. I immediately try to bleed off any extra momentum, get some distance, and kill the flames licking at my tattered shirt by rolling away.

"No!" Taylor's horrified scream sounds through the alley, followed by the rush and buzz of thousands of insects.

[202/1190 HP] flashes red in the upper corner of my vision as I try to focus through the pain. A weak wave of flames washes over me, mitigated by how close to the ground I am. [-9 HP] I need more health. Now. "[Inventory]" comes out as less of a command, more a harsh whisper as my throat refuses to cooperate with me. I grab a [Low Grade Recovery Potion] and…

... I realize I'm wearing a full-coverage helmet. Crap. How can I- Ah. I slide the potion icon onto the picture of me.

[+200 HP] My stomach suddenly feels like I just chugged a bottle of chilled fruit juice. Not full, but not empty. And cold. I'm at almost 400 HP. It's not enough, but I'm leery of using up my potions too quickly. Also, I don't relish 'chugging' another potion so quickly. Instead, I pull up my character screen and dump all 20 stat points into VIT, boosting my HP by 100 immediately.

...my VIT and INT are tied now… grr… Still, more is better for now, so I swap to the tri-horned [Atlas Beetle Augment] for that last tiny boost to my health.

"[Rising Strike!]" My attention is drawn back to the battle by Taylor's call. While I've been otherwise occupied, Lady Bug has picked up some soot and scratches, but mostly looks unharmed. The field of battle has also mostly emptied by now. There are two unconscious gang-bangers near Lung, but everyone else is gone. Taylor swings her dented bat up between his legs, only for him to catch it in one oversized, clawed hand.

He's clearly changed over the course of our battle. The pants he'd worn at the beginning of the battle have burned down to mere rags and his previously bare torso is breaking out in silver scales. The scorched remnants of the swarm clung to his skin at every point not covered by the scales. Flames danced along his body, forming a barrier against further insect attackers. A twist of his hand disarmed Taylor. "My turn."

No eight-foot tall hulking dragonman should move so fast. Taylor barely manages to avoid a punch, only for that to have been a feint. Instead, his knee powerfully slams into her stomach, launching her a dozen or so feet before she lands and rolls unsteadily to her feet. I'm back on my feet as well and taking a more measured approach as I move to join her.

"Is the best you can do?" Taylor taunts the dragon, gesturing for him to approach. 'Come-at-me-bro' isn't the usual approach to facing a world-famous pyrokinetic Brute, but she's making a good showing of it.

Lung takes the bait. "Kill you!" 400 or so pounds of screaming rage dragon charging us is an experience I don't care to repeat, and he's not even aiming for me. At first. Taylor ducks his enraged strike and spins with her back to him as she grabs his flaming arm. Somehow, this skinny girl throws Lung at me. Great. The 400 pound screaming rage dragon is flying at me now.

Well, it's not like he's in control, so… "[Grounding Strike!]" I put all my strength and weight into a powerful punch that catches him in the base of the spine. The pavement doesn't crack or anything, but his flame cloak flickers away.

Taylor immediately capitalizes on the opening by dumping every remaining insect in range on him. I take a moment too long to back away and Lung catches me with a gigantic backhand.

[-85 HP]

If that's how you want to play… I snap a kick into his knee. "[Power Strike!]" Even at 60 MP per strike and with [Zombie's Hide] draining 28 more per minute, I can afford to put everything I've got into every attack I launch. 2765 MP maximum means I can go all out for a few minutes when I have to. Like now. The frequent [Critical Hits!] impact hard enough that pebbles on the ground jump from each meaty thunk, but Lung seems unharmed. To make things worse, when he hits me… [-85 HP]. I can't afford that kind of damage, so I focus on dodging, only hitting when I'm fairly sure I can get back out in time. Taylor joins in, bat in hand again. With her drawing some of his attention, it's a little easier to get a safe opening. It doesn't help that the tattered remains of my shirt/armor keep flopping around. [-85 HP] Apparently I could use some more practice judging when to strike. Ow. Careful, cautious, don't get hit again. It does seem like he's slowing down, making wilder swings, but maybe it's just wishful thinking. At this rate, two more hits… Maybe if I can get clear for a moment, one more potion could hold me over. [-85 HP] This clearly isn't the time to be thinking about it. I lay one more [Power Strike] into his ribs and jump back to buy a few precious seconds.

Before I can make use of them, Lung roars and explodes. The wall of fire [-73 HP] throws me back and into the wall [-9 HP]. Taylor is launched further, collapsing to the ground a good dozen or more feet away. As I stare in dismay at the leering monster who has taken everything I can throw at him without so much as a flinch, I watch my HP tick up from 4 to 5. Fuck. I'm by myself until Taylor can get back up, facing the fucking [Dragon of Kyushu] alone. And I can't afford to take a single hit. While I can [Dodge] a few swings, how can I avoid something like that blast?

As I steel myself to at least sell my life for the highest price I can claw out of him, Lung sways. Oh God, please let him… And he falls. Flat on his face. The ground shakes, but not as hard as I do. Holy…

[61,557 XP]

[Quest Completed!]  
[You have gained 5000 XP]  
[Bonus Goal Completed!]  
[You have gained 5000 XP]

[Your reputation with the Asian Bad Boys has decreased!]  
[Reputation with the Asian Bad Boys has changed from 'Hostile' to 'Hated'.]

As all the alerts that had piled up over the course of the fight crowd my vision, the increasingly familiar feel of leveling up (several times) washes away my pains and refills my HP and MP. While I don't really need to, I indulge in a few deep, shaky breaths to calm myself as I begin dismissing windows. Looks like going balls-out increased my STR by 1 at some point. Level ups… 9 plus that 1 at the beginning of the fight… Every skill I used in the fight has gone up by at least 1, which makes sense. It seems that more danger means more experience. There are a few surprises in the clutter, though.

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[By acting in a bewilderingly strange manner, [Fool's Act], has been created.]  
[Fool's Act (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0% / MP 5]  
[Words or actions that make the enemy doubt the mental state of the user. It could possibly confuse the target.]  
[Has a small chance to confuse the target for 2 seconds. Willpower negates.]  
 _[Now you have a skill for it.]_

Well, that's insulting. But fair.

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[By surviving significant flame damage, [Elemental Endurance], has been created.]  
[Physical Endurance (Passive) Lvl 2 Exp 1.37%]  
[The body's durability increases and you take less damage. 4% decrease in damage from fire, ice, acid, and electrical attacks.]  
 _[If you can't stand the heat, don't tickle the dragon.]_

...that probably saved my life from that last explosion...

[By defeating a Boss-Rank enemy, a new Illusion Barrier has been unlocked.]  
[[Dragon Dungeon] has been unlocked.]  
[Defeat dragon-type foes for fun and profit!]

[You've defeated The Dragon of Kyushu.]  
[You've received the title [Dragon Slayer]]

The new title looks to be just about the same as its Zombie equivalent, with the obvious substitutions. And implications. We just beat _LUNG_.

Taylor is up and checking on the shrinking supervillain now. I walk around the still-large man to work off my nerves a little.

"If you ever do anything that crazy again, I'll kill you myself!" She softens the words with a solid hug before stepping back.

I don't need to see her face to know she's pissed at me. Fair enough, that was downright stupid. There's no reloading in real life, not even with my powers. I can't help remembering seeing my HP at 4. A desperate sincerity fills my voice as I reply, "If I ever do something like that again, you probably won't get the chance!"

"Beetle Knight." Her voice carries a take-charge note. "Check out the two downed gang members. Use [Observe]. If they're bleeding out you might have to use those red bottles." She waves towards some nearby windows. The lights are on, and I think I see silhouettes in a few. "Be discreet. We've got an audience." Right. No obvious [Inventory] use. Got to have some secrets. "I'll secure Lung."

We beat Lung. ...what do you use to 'secure' a fucking _dragon_?! "Right. I'll go do that."

I see her start unwinding the makeshift rope from her waist as I turn to the injured thugs. They're both lightly charred, and one will probably lose an eye, but neither is in immediate danger. A brief check shows that both will also need to replace their cellphones. Damn. We should probably call this in with the Protectorate. Eh, at least one of the rubberneckers must have called someone by now. Protectorate, PRT, BBPD, as long as _someone_ secures Lung before he wakes up.

With nothing else to do for the moment, I start tearing off the broken metal remnants of my chestplate and scorched tatters of my shirt. It's more trouble than it's worth at this point to keep them on, just flapping around.

"Beetle Knight, keep your guard up. We're not alone." I freeze, fistfuls of fabric stretched between my hands.

An unfamiliar, teasing voice comes from the nearest fire escape. "Oh, don't stop on my account."

* * *

Game Mechanics: stealth 2, grounding strike 1, physical resistance 3, light armor mastery 3, jeet kune do 5, zombie's hide 2, dodge 2, power strike 2, elemental resistance 2, str 1, luk 1, 20 stat points spent (on VIT)


	21. Scripted Encounters 3-3

Scripted Encounters 3.3 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission. This chapter comes after Boss Fights 3.2 and will overlap the first part of Boss Fights 3.3

* * *

 **Scripted Encounters 3.3**

I look up to see a shadowed figure climb most of the way down the fire escape ladder before skipping the last few rungs, dropping to the ground with a light 'tak' before approaching us. As soon as she gets close enough to see… Oh, sweet mother of spandex! Purple and black fabric _clings_ everywhere. And she's in the kind of shape her costume demands. Damn. Okay, eyes up. Hmm. Blonde. I think I've recovered fairly quickly, but I still meet a knowing smirk. "Are you forgetting something?"

["Tattletale"]  
[Level 28]  
[Know-it-all]

[Relationship with "Tattletale" has increased!]  
[Relationship with "Tattletale" has advanced from 'Stranger' to 'Peer']

Oh, my shirt. I finish powering through the hem and slide the whole mess off, probably blushing like crazy under my helmet. "Eh, yeah, sorry. It was kinda in the way and flapping around after Lung, and I'm rambling. I should stop." Thankfully, I stop just before I would have said something unfortunate about being uncomfortably aware of my nipples, topless in the spring air. With two girls.

"Whatever excuse you need. Not that I mind." Did… did she just elevator-eyes me? She turns to Taylor before continuing. "Why did you guys even get into a fight with Lung?"

"He was going to kill children." There's absolutely no regret or hesitation in Taylor's voice. Hope that means she doesn't blame me for dragging her into that. "We couldn't let that happen. And who are you?"

Spandex Chick, er, Tattletale's smirk doesn't shrink at all. "So you both just charged in to save the day? Or rather, _you_ ," she nods at me, "charged first and _you_ ," gesture to Taylor, "jumped in to save him. And the kids. Good work. You really saved our asses."

"Do you mean…?" Our? Lung was after her and some friends? Do her friends also wear spandex?

"And, you still haven't given us a name."

Tattletale shrugs. "Neither have you. You tell me yours, I'll tell you mine." Her voice brings the Mona Lisa's smile to mind - not _mocking_ , per se, but clearly amused by a secret no one else knows.

"I'm Lady Bug, and this is my partner, Beetle Knight." Her gesture towards me is probably unnecessary, given we're the only three conscious people in the alleyway. "Now who are you and your friends?"

"You can call me Tattletale." I consider using a whispered [Observe] to get more info, but it seems like she'd catch that. And with how little info I usually get, I probably wouldn't learn anything new, except maybe something random, like her three sizes. Hmm...

Taylor sounds a little wary. "So Tattletale, why was Lung after you, your friends, and those three beasts?" It's not easy remembering that the Taylor Hebert who can't seem to avoid her bullies is actually so aware of her surrounds.

Tattletale turns to face Taylor. "You're wondering if we're heroes or villains." Of course she's a hero. Her outfit is way too… It would be slinkier or scarier if she was a villain. "The world's a little more complicated than that. There are lots of shades of grey. Tonight, we're both fighting the ABB." Oh. Guess I was wrong on that one.

"But you're still a villain." Taylor's choking up on her bat again.

"Like I said, it's complicated. Sometimes life takes an unexpected path. Things happen that you can't take back. I'm here to stop you from making a similar mistake. You, ah, overdid it a little. Lung's dying. You beat him too fast, his regeneration isn't strong enough to get all the toxins out. He needs… your epi-pens. Both of them, and go for major veins. The jolt should be enough to save him."

"Knight, what's the status on Lung?"

Just 'Knight'? I suppose 'Beetle Knight' is a bit long to use every time. Hmm, what works for 'Lady Bug'? Definitely not using 'Bug' when I can avoid it, and 'Lady' would seem sexist at a glance… No. Focus. I need to make sure the slumbering villain isn't dying, but I'm not so sure about showing off this part of my powers. I turn to Lung and mutter the softest [Observe] I can manage.

["Lung"]  
[Level ?]  
[The Dragon of Kyushu]  
[The world-infamous leader of the Azn Bad Boys and only parahuman to survive fighting an Endbringer one-on-one. Controls fire and regenerates. Grows in power over the course of a fight, eventually turning into a dragon. Prefers armchairs to couches.]  
[Lung is currently suffering from a potent blend of insect toxins, delivered in mass quantities. Without medical help, Lung will die within minutes.]

Well, that was a little random. Armchairs? Best to focus on the important part. "She's right. He's fading fast."

"Okay, let's do this."

Saving a villain's life under another villain's direction, after beating the first villain to death's door. Well, day one as a superhero is off to an interesting start. Taylor fishes both injectors out of her belt and passes me one. Only two major veins near the surface I can think of, jugular and femoral. Saving a life or not, as long as I've got other options I'm not messing with another man's junk. Instead, I take a moment to find his pulse before jabbing the right side of his neck. Hooray for random late-night internet searches. Taylor carefully watches me, then copies my actions to hit the left jugular.

[A skill has been created through a special action.]  
[A skill to treat minor injuries and ailments, [First Aid], has been created.]  
[First Aid (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0% / MP 10]  
[Treats minor injuries like cuts and bruises. Can treat broken bones at higher levels.]  
[5% increase in recovery speed of treated injuries.]  
[ _Just because_ you _don't bleed..._ ]

Taylor whispers to me over the back of the unconscious Cape's head, "Is it working?"

A second [Observe] shows that his regeneration is outpacing the venom by a hair, and nets me a skill-up. "Yeah, he's stable now." Thank God. Lung may be a violent asshole, but I don't need his death on my hands.

Taylor pushes herself to her feet and turns to Tattletale. "Whatever your affiliation, thank you."

"So!" Tattletale bounces on her feet, drawing my attention down. I focus back up on her face. "I'm with the Undersiders. Thanks for taking care of Lung for us." She offers a gloved hand to Taylor and she takes it, after a moment's pause. "He was coming after us tonight. We decided to take the fight to him, take it on our own terms." I do my best to hold eye contact during my turn. Wow, that's a bright green. "We found Oni Lee and half a dozen guys, but Lung and the majority of his gang never made it. Nice work."

[Your reputation with The Undersiders has increased!]  
[Reputation with The Undersiders has increased from 'Neutral' to 'Friendly'.]

And now we're on friendly terms with a group of villains. This has been an odd night. "The credit has to go to Lady Bug here. I highly doubt my advanced strategy of 'hit him, then hit him again, harder' was half as effective as," I already said Lady Bug once, need a shorter name fast, "m'lady pumping him full of a few thousand spiders' worth of venom." It's a bit formal, but it fits.

"I'm still impressed. By both of you. Why don't you come up and meet my team?" She holds up a hand towards Lady Bug. "I know we're not usually on the same side, but tonight we are. Things work a bit different in reality than they do in the news. Consider this a one-night truce. Someday you may be glad you have a backchannel."

Taylor pauses a moment before responding, "...you'd better not be planning anything."

"I wouldn't dare!" The look of innocent shock on Tattletale's face is so obviously faked it loops back around to reassuring. "We're evasion specialists, not combat like Lung, and you beat him like a rented drum."

"Ladies first?" I gesture to the rusted ladder she'd come down. Vague thoughts of coming up behind the villainess waft through my mind, momentarily.

Taylor gives me a light shove. "Move it." I think I hear her mutter something else, but I could be- Nope, Tattletale is laughing. I don't think I want to know. My increased stats are more obvious to me when used for something mundane like climbing this ladder. I could probably do it with just my hands, but don't want to risk stepping on someone's face trying it.

The building is only a single story, so there are no zig-zagging stairs to deal with. Three new people and three monstrous quadrupeds await us on the roof. The beasts draw my attention first as the most visually threatening. [Angelica, Level 34], [Brutus, Level 32], and [Judas, Level 33] are all hulking masses of asymmetrical muscle and bone spurs, something like skinless reptilian pumas. And they're almost as big as a minivan each. Angelica might be missing an eye and an ear, but it's hard to tell with just how ugly the beasts are.

I can feel Tattletale stand beside me, her nubile form radiating heat across the three inches between my left left arm and her spandex-wrapped… shoulder. "I'll make the introductions." Lady Bug leans around my right side to get a better view as Tattletale points out each of her teammates in turn.

The first, closest person is wearing masculine street clothes (leather jacket with fur collar, sturdy blue jeans, heavy work boots) and has a cheap plastic rottweiler mask strapped to her head, more like a tiny hat than any attempt at keeping her identity secret. She's almost as masculine as her outfit, with a lantern jaw and shoulders broader than any man in my family. Still, she's… proportionate enough that I'm sure of her gender. If only just. The three creatures defer to her in what seems like an instinctive response.

[Rachel "Bitch" Lindt]  
[Level 39]  
[Canine Minded]

[Relationship with Rachel "Bitch" Lindt has increased!]  
[Relationship with Rachel "Bitch" Lindt has advanced from 'Human' to 'Unfriendly']

"You may have heard of Hellhound," Who? "but I should let you know she prefers to go by Bitch. The PRT and media prefer to keep it PG." I wonder why my power provided her full name… Guess I'll look it up later.

I'm slightly less sure of the sex of the next figure. Sure, he(?) has a rather masculine figure, with similarly broad shoulders and no apparent feminine features, but who knows what's under thick motorcycle leathers and that helmet? Eh, I'll just think of him as male. If he didn't want to be viewed as male, padding could have been added. The skull-shaped visor on his helmet isn't the most feminine choice either. His stance speaks of confidence and some martial arts training. Probably enough to take me in a straight fight, for now.

["Grue"]  
[Level 34]  
[Enforcer]

[Relationship with "Grue" has increased!]  
[Relationship with "Grue" has advanced from 'Stranger' to 'Peer']

"Our fearless leader here is Grue." ...is that a reference to that old text adventure game? And was it Adventure or Zork?

The last one is a guy. A pretty boy, but male. I think. Too much chest exposed by his ren faire outfit to not be obvious on a girl. Probably. His mask/crown combo is kinda similar to Ta- Lady Bug's, but the lack of armor, silver color to the crown, and addition of a scepter give him a bit of a different theme.

["Regent"]  
[Level 43]  
[Heartbroken]

[Relationship with "Regent" has increased.]  
[Relationship with "Regent" has increased from 'Whoever' to 'I-Know-That-Guy']

"Last and certainly least, we have Regent."

"Least?" I barely catch myself before I say any more, like mentioning his level. Oops. But seriously, dude's the strongest one here. Or most experienced. Still not quite sure what levels _mean_.

"Fuck you, Tattletale." There's a laugh in the crowned boy's voice, almost like this a recurring joke. "Are we going to talk about how new girl is stealing my shtick, or are we just going to keep enjoying the scenery? Either way works for me." If I didn't know better, I'd swear his mask was leering at me. I resist the urge to reveal my inventory just to grab a shirt.

"Lady Bug. Beetle Knight. I'm sure you can figure out which one is which." Tattletale is smirking. Ag- no, she never really stopped, did she?

Grue steps forward and offers me a gloved hand. "Good show on Lung. I take it those were your bugs?" His helmet adds a touch of deep reverb to his clearly masculine voice. I wonder if mine is doing the same? I could use the extra layer of identity protection.

"No, m'lady is the insect controller. I'm... " Crap, we never figured out what exactly is safe to mention. Well, they already saw me shake off some serious hits and [Sense Danger] wasn't completely useless. This time. "Thinker/Brute combo. She's the Master."

"And with her wearing armor and your helmet, people will assume the other way around. Smart." I don't have it in me to correct him. If he wants to be impressed by my foresight… "Of course, you shouldn't have told me that. We'll probably be on opposite sides someday, hero." _Crap._ At least he sounds more amused than threatening.

"So…" Change of topic, his turn to share. "What'd you do to piss off Lung?" Okay, maybe that was a little blunt.

"We robbed the Ruby Dream casino a few days ago." Isn't that from Final- no, that's the Golden Saucer. Why does that sound familiar?

Before I can continue, Tattletale interrupts, "Protectorate hero inbound. We gotta bail. Maybe we'll see you guys again."

The four of them quickly scramble onto the three dogs. It's no surprise that the two larger Undersiders, Bitc- Rachel and Grue each take a dog to themselves while the smaller Regent and Tattletale share a steed. Lucky bastard. The whole gang disappears as the monstrous canines carry them from rooftop to rooftop. So cool. I wonder if I could do that at 100 STR or so.

"Well, that was… interesting." I pause for a moment to review the conversation in my mind. "I think I just made an idiot of myself in the tee-ball league of keeping your mouth shut around villains."

"Maybe there's a skillbook on witty repartee for heroes." Taylor seems a little upset.

I don't think I spilled anything _too_ sensitive, though. Maybe I can just keep the banter going until she forgets. "If there is, I bet Assault wrote it." Come to think of it, I think Mouse Protector did an instructional video on the subject...

Instead of running with the joke, Taylor's next words are alarmed. "The bugs I have on Lung are dying."


	22. Boss Fights 3-3

The story of Taylor Hebert and James Barron continues in Boss Fights 3.3. Beta by Faria Lyton.

* * *

 **Boss Fights 3.3**

During the fight with Lung I'd been simply gathering up every bug in range and ordering them to close in on us. I'd kept up my [Combat Mapping] of the combat area and on the ABB grunts, but I hadn't maintained a map of the entire area under my control. With the fight over I'd extended my map and discovered we had guests: four humans and three huge creatures. Something was off about the creatures. My bugs smelled dogs, but the scale was all wrong. They were far too large to be dogs.

A teasing feminine voice called out from the group. "Oh, don't stop on my account."

I rushed more bugs to the area as one of our watchers came out of hiding. A woman in a dark-shaded costume climbed half-way down a ladder and leapt confidently down to the pavement. As she stepped into the light I got a better look at her. She was young, blonde to strawberry blonde, and a few inches taller than me. Her costume was skintight and combined blacks with shades of purple. Given how tight the fit was, I doubted her breasts were as fake as mine. If I'd worn that outfit, I'd look like an upright frog.

[Fashion Rating, Tasty. +30% to Reaction Rolls, +30% to Seduction, +30% to Stealth, +10% to Intimidate. _If you've got it, flaunt it._ ]

What? Like I needed more weirdness from James's power. Apparently it had now decided to be my fashion consultant. Meanwhile, I'd relocated more bugs to the roof: one male, big and muscled wearing a plastic helmet; one girl, also well-built with a facemask; one male, smelling strongly of soap and shampoo with a mask and a crown; and three huge creatures that smelled of dog, blood, and bone.

"Are you forgetting something?" asked mystery girl.

James finished ripping away his shirt and ditched it. "Eh, yeah, sorry. It was kinda in the way and flapping around after Lung, and I'm rambling. I should stop."

"Whatever excuse you need. Not that I mind," she flirted.

What the fuck? It wasn't like I owned James. We were friends. Partners. This just wasn't the time or place for flirting. Seeing him with his shirt off, he had buffed up considerably over the past few days, but this was femme fatale level bullshit straight off of the movie screen. James's last name was Barron, not Bond. This girl was as fake as one of Emma's smiles, but James was lapping it up. She was obviously playing him. Once again I had to be the responsible one. I moved extra mosquitoes onto her. Meanwhile, I directed more bugs up to the roof where her gang and the dog-things were hiding. While Lung had killed almost all of my venomous bugs, I still had plenty of bugs left and moved them into ready position. If they tried anything, I'd be ready.

Blonde-and-flirty turned to me. "Why did you guys even get into a fight with Lung?"

"He was going to kill children." I placed a few dozen horseflies close to her. Not as good as wasps or bees, but better than nothing. "We couldn't let that happen. And who are you?"

Her self-satisfied smirk didn't waver. "So you both just charged in to save the day? Or rather, _you_ ," she nodded at James, "charged first and _you_ ," she gestured to me, "jumped in to save him. And the kids. Good work. You really saved our asses."

Ah, shit. The 'children' Lung had mentioned, the ones James and I had gone to so much effort to save tonight, were capes. Worse, from the way she avoided my question I was pretty sure they weren't good guys.

"Do you mean…?"

Apparently James was even more confused than me, and I didn't know what to make of Miss Smirk and her friends. Should I launch a preemptive strike? If there was a new teen hero group in town, I should have heard about it. Then again, if there were a villain group in town, then I should have heard that too. I had researched the local gangs. "And, you still don't have a name."

She shrugged. "Neither do you. You tell me yours, I'll tell you mine."

"I'm Lady Bug, and this…" I waved a hand to James, "Is my partner, Beetle Knight. Now who are you and your friends?"

"The name is Tattletale." Her name suited her very well. She had that smug air of knowing something others didn't.

[Relationship with Tattletale has increased!]  
[Relationship with Tattletale has advanced from 'Stranger' to 'Peer']

Huh, that popup was actually helpful. Peer sounded neutral and not hostile. Maybe we wouldn't have to fight. I kept moving more bugs into position anyway. "So Tattletale, why was Lung after you, your friends, and your three beasts?"

Tattletale turned to face me. "You're wondering if we're heroes or villains. The world's a little more complicated than that. There are lots of shades of grey. Tonight, we're both fighting the ABB."

I knew that things weren't just black and white. Parian was a rogue. Faultline's crew were mercenaries. "But you're still a villain."

"Like I said, it's complicated. Sometimes life takes an unexpected path. Things happen that you can't take back. I'm here to stop you from making a similar mistake. You, ah, overdid it a little. Lung's dying. You beat him too fast, his regeneration isn't strong enough to get all the toxins out. He needs… your epi-pens. Both of them, and go for major veins. The jolt should be enough to save him."

That… could be true. I'd hit him with a lot of venom. "Knight, what's the status on Lung?"

"She's right. He's fading fast." He was getting better at subvocalizing. I didn't even hear a mutter.

Okay then. I gave him a nod and fished out two epi-pens. I passed one to James. Go for major veins? How exactly did I do that? Fortunately James seemed to know what to do. He crouched down by Lung's neck. I moved to the other side so I could watch. He felt for a pulse and used the injector right there. Right. I could do this. I felt for a pulse and found one. This went completely against the rules for epi-pens that called for it to be injected into the muscle. I pressed down and injected Lung. Nothing else happened that I could see.

I whispered to James, "Is it working?"

James muttered something too quiet for me to make out, probably [Observe]. "Yeah, he's stable now."

I let out a sigh of relief. Sure, Lung was a villain and murderer several times over, but I hadn't wanted to kill him. I just couldn't let him kill James, or the kids. Still, the swellings all over his body spoke to how much damage my bugs had done, and I couldn't see the worst of it as he was lying on his stomach. I'd focused them on his face and soft tissue. I pushed myself up and considered Tattletale. Despite her flirting with James, she had just saved me from making a big mistake. I gave Tattletale a little half-bow. "Whatever your affiliation, thank you."

"So!" Tattletale bounced on her feet. She was far too perky for seriousness of the situation. "I'm with the Undersiders. Thanks for taking care of Lung for us." She offered me an open hand.

[Your reputation with The Undersiders has increased!]  
[Reputation with The Undersiders has increased from 'Neutral' to 'Friendly'.]

Friendly was good. Apparently we weren't going to fight tonight. I've rarely had a girl offer to shake hands, but I guess this called for it. I clasped her hand and shook. Did this make us even?

"He was coming after us tonight," continued Tattletale. "We decided to take the fight to him, take it on our own terms. We found Oni Lee and half a dozen guys, but Lung and the majority of his gang never made it. Nice work."

"The credit has to go to Lady Bug here. I highly doubt my advanced strategy of 'hit him, then hit him again, harder' was half as effective as m'lady pumping him full of a few thousand spiders' worth of venom."

M'lady? Hmm, I rather liked the sound of that, but James was being too modest. While he had rushed in like an idiot, he'd made up for it by keeping Lung busy. I also couldn't be proud of my work as I'd obviously overdone the spiders.

"I'm still impressed. By both of you. Why don't you come up and meet my team?" She held up a hand toward me. "I know we're not usually on the same side, but tonight we are. Things work a bit different in reality than they do in the news. Consider this a one-night truce. Someday you may be glad you have a backchannel."

Maybe, but there were still people in those windows capturing this on video, and something about her reminded me of Emma with her gift for twisting words and hidden agendas. On the other hand, I didn't have Lung's blood on my hands because of her. Plus, James's power had advised us to save the kids, and called them friendly. Even if I didn't completely trust her, I trusted James's power. "You'd better not be planning anything."

Tattletale faked gasped and clutched her chest. "I wouldn't dare! We're evasion specialists, not combat like Lung, and you beat him like a rented drum."

"Ladies first?" suggested James hopefully.

I gave him a shove for that. "Move it." I rolled my eyes at his back. "Perv," I muttered. While the comment was intended for James it was Tattletale who laughed. I followed him up to the roof to meet the Undersiders.

Despite the messages from my bugs, I was still taken aback by the three creatures that my bugs insisted smelled like dogs. They looked nothing like dogs. They were huge ugly things, as big as my father's truck. They didn't have a dog's proportions either, more like a tiger in length and in teeth, but they didn't have fur or skin. Rather than fur or skin, they had a tangle of naked muscle with bone spikes and spurs sticking out. Meanwhile my bugs kept insisting they smelled of dog and blood. They made me queasy. I had bugs in position, but without my more venomous insects I doubted they would even slow down these three monsters.

"I'll make the introductions," said Tattletale. While part of me had been staring at the dogs, I'd still been aware of Tattletale and her three teammates. I particularly noticed the way Tattletale was standing right beside James and almost rubbing her breasts up against him. So she wanted to play games? I sent a mosquito to buzz in her ear. Tattletale rolled her eyes at me and stepped a half-step away from James as she introduced her first teammate, "You may have heard of Hellhound, but I should let you know she prefers to go by Bitch. The PRT and media prefer to keep it PG."

[Relationship with "Bitch" has increased!]  
[Relationship with "Bitch" has advanced from 'Human' to 'Unfriendly']

Privately I wondered if she should go by Butch instead of Bitch. That wasn't a dig at her sexual orientation. She was simply one of the most masculine girls that I'd ever met. Her 'costume' consisted of army boots, men's blue jeans, a biker style brown leather jacket with a fur collar, and a cheap plastic dollar store dog mask that didn't even cover her face. Her mask was pushed up so that it perched on top of her head. The clothes matched the girl. She had a squat muscular build coupled with a blunt face, think eyebrows and wild blonde hair. My bugs found her scent to be a pungent mix of unwashed human and dog.

[Fashion Rating, Rebel. -15% to Reaction Rolls, +10% to Intimidate, +10% to Stealth. _Doesn't play well with others_.]

"Our fearless leader here is Grue."

[Relationship with "Grue" has increased!]  
[Relationship with "Grue" has advanced from 'Stranger' to 'Peer']

Other than the shoulders and the height, the enigmatic figure in motorcycle leathers and matching black helmet only looked vaguely masculine. However, I had no doubt that Grue was male, because my bugs scented male. When exactly had I picked up the ability to tell male from female by scent? I had been opening myself up to my bug's sense of smell more, apparently it was paying off.

"Last and certainly least, we have Regent."

[Relationship with "Regent" has increased.]  
[Relationship with "Regent" has increased from 'Whoever' to 'I-Know-That-Girl']

Regent dressed like a swashbuckler: knee-high boots with a folded-down cuff, skin-tight leggings, and a white ruffled shirt. All he needed was a rapier. Instead he rounded out his costume with a silver scepter, matching silver crown, and a stylized silver and gold mask. The silver crown went well with his short black and curly hair, but if he was going to have a gaping v-neck like that, he needed either some chest hair or more muscles to really pull it off.

[Fashion Rating, Rakish. +30% to Reaction Rolls, +20% to Seduction. _He's a scoundrel_.]

"Least?" asked James incredulously.

"Fuck you, Tattletale." Despite the words, he sounded more amused than offended. "Are we going to talk about how new girl is stealing my shtick, or are we just going to keep enjoying the scenery? Either way works for me."

"Lady Bug. Beetle Knight. I'm sure you can figure out which one is which." Tattletale's smug introduction left me feeling like I was being slighted somehow.

Grue stepped forward and shook hands with James. "Good show on Lung. I take it those were your bugs?"

"No, m'lady is the insect controller. I'm... Thinker/Brute combo. She's the Master."

"And with her wearing armor and your helmet, people will assume the other way around. Smart. Of course, you shouldn't have told me that. We'll probably be on opposite sides someday, hero."

"So…What'd you do to piss off Lung?" asked James.

The conversation was flying fast and furious, and I felt a little cut-out. Regent was apparently gay. Grue thought that James was the leader, and I still didn't have a good quippy comment to throw back at Regent for 'stealing his shtick'. I had the better costume. If anything, his was the cheap knockoff.

"We robbed the Ruby Dream casino a few days ago," explained Grue.

What kind of morons would rob a casino owned by Lung? Although given that I'd charged Lung…

"Protectorate hero inbound," Tattletale announced. "We gotta bail. Maybe we'll see you guys again."

When Tattletale named her team evasion specialists, she had apparently been serious, because the Undersiders quickly hopped up on their dogs. Rachel and Grue each claimed their own. Tattletale climbed on behind Regent. Bitch gave a complicated whistle and the dogs all took off. Regent almost lost his grip as he'd been giving us a parting wave when his dog burst into motion. With a few steps to get up to speed the dogs leapt and sailed to the next rooftop and were quickly out of range of sight and my bug-dar.

"Well, that was… interesting," commented James. "I think I just made an idiot of myself in the tee-ball league of keeping your mouth shut around villains."

"Maybe there is a skillbook on witty repartee for heroes?"

"If there is, I bet Assault wrote it."

I was about to counter with Mouse Protector, but suddenly it wasn't relevant. "The bugs I have on Lung are dying." Not all at once. He hadn't detonated again, but he was doing something to fry them. I directed my bugs to dig into his eyes, ears and nose, but those bugs died too. I'd grown accustomed to having my [Combat Mapping], but in regards to Lung I was practically blind now. I could only guess that he was burning through my makeshift rope. Silk was fire resistant, but not fire proof. With Lung's ability it was only a matter of time until he got free.

"Shit," said James.

"Tattletale just said there is a Protectorate hero on their way here now. If we leave, then whoever it is will face an angry Lung." I did not want to face him again, but what choice did we have? Run. Running was actually the smart choice. "I'm staying. You could go."

"If you stay, I stay," he said firmly.

"You don't have to."

James shrugged. I would have given a lot to see his face right then, but all I saw was his helmet. "We're partners. I'm not leaving you to face him alone. So, what's the plan?"

"[Stealth]," I whispered. I moved to the edge of the roof and got down low so I could barely see over. The good news was that Lung wasn't surrounded in flames. The bad news was that Lung was already sitting up with his arms free. Jets of fire from his hands were directed at the remnants of my rope binding his legs. So much for my hope of salvaging my cape-nets. I directed some moths to fly in his ears to distract him. "The plan is we wait here. If he goes home, fine. I don't care. Let someone else catch him another day. I just don't want another hero to face him alone."

"I like this plan. Especially the part where we don't fight Lung again," whispered James.

I tossed an irritated look at James. I'm not superstitious, but I now had proof that bad luck was real. He was practically begging Murphy to screw with us… and apparently Murphy was listening, because Lung was now standing up and looking our way. How the hell had he spotted us on a roof in the darkness through stealth? Lung took three running steps toward us and then leaped. Apparently Bitch's dogs had competition for the Brockton Bay roof jumping championship. Fortunately, Lung's landing left much to be desired. He stumbled and fell forward, catching himself with one hand before rising.

"Flank him!" I cried as I cut to my left while running toward Lung. My bugs informed me James was going right. Good, because flanking Lung was the sum total of my plan. With Lung in front of us and the edge of the roof at our backs, we didn't have a lot of room for anything fancy. Meanwhile, I directed fresh bugs at his eyes, nose and ears. For once luck seemed to be with me. I'd been concentrating my bugs up on this rooftop just in case the Undersiders tried something. While I didn't have many good bugs other than fire ants, I had an entire swarm of other bugs to throw at him.

"Muh… Mutherfawker!" Lung screamed. He ignored James entirely and sent a twin jets of flame shooting at me from both his hands.

I leapt up in something that started in a gymnastic vault and ended in an Aikido roll and managed to avoid the worst of the flames, but I'd still felt a burn on my legs. I shoved my bugs at his eyes as I kept rolling to take dubious shelter behind some kind of air conditioning unit. Meanwhile James hadn't been idle. With a cry of "[Power Strike]!" he launched an impressive roundhouse kick at Lung's head. James's foot connected with Lung's skull with an audible crack that sent Lung staggering towards me.

My recently acquired knowledge of [Akido] informed me of all the wonderful things I could have done to Lung right then if I hadn't been cowering behind an air conditioning unit. I stood up to rejoin the fight as Lung directed a stream of fire towards his own head. My bugs on his face died, but the several moths lodged in his ear cannels survived. I took advantage of Lung's distraction and attacked with a [Rising Strike], but even injured Lung was faster than me. He kicked me just below the ribcage, knocked the wind completely out of me, and sent me flying backwards. I skidded along the gravel roof unable to focus enough to tuck and roll.

James laid into Lung with a series of [Power Strikes] while I laid flat on my back just trying to breathe. I had more control of my bugs than I did over my own body. I directed moths, mosquitoes and flies to continually attack Lung's eyes, ears and nose. They must have been doing something, because Lung kept blasting his own face with fire. James was more than holding his own. He seemed to be pummeling Lung at will, not that it was putting him down. I wasn't entirely sure that we weren't doing more harm than good. When Lung first landed on the roof, he'd been staggering around. While his aim was still erratic, his speed and power were increasing. More of his skin was covered with scales. Without spider venom we needed to hit him faster and harder. James needed my help. Unfortunately my body just didn't want to respond.


	23. Scripted Encounters 3-4

Scripted Encounters 3.4 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission. This chapter comes after Boss Fights 3.3 and will overlap the first part of Boss Fights 3.4.

I'd also like to announce a format change for game mechanics. They were previously set off by [Square Brackets]. In the original game mechanics were set off using single angle brackets (greater than / less than signs). Unfortunately FanFiction deletes single angle brackets. I discovered FanFiction doesn't delete «Double angle brackets» and I will be using those going forward as they are closer to the original intent.

* * *

 **Scripted Encounters 3.4**

"Shit." Okay, so Lung's awake. Most likely. I mean, maybe… No. Murphy hates me. Lung's up. Round two.

"Tattletale just said there is a Protectorate hero on their way here now." Taylor sounds just as unconvinced as I feel. "If we leave, then whoever it is will face an angry Lung." She pauses for thought before continuing, "I'm staying. You could go."

Does she really think I'd leave her alone to face _that_ again? Hell, I wouldn't leave Mystery Hero to do that, and I'm far more attached to Taylor than some stranger, especially after these last… has it really only been two days? Whatever, I'm not leaving her. "If you stay, I stay."

"You don't have to."

"We're partners. I'm not leaving you to face him alone." How many bugs did it take to bring him down, and how much was brute force? Does she have enough bugs to do it again? Probably not. "So, what's the plan?" Please tell me there's a plan.

«Stealth» still sounds freaking weird as a verbal command, even when she whispers it. Lady Bug creeps to the side of the roof and peers over. I'm not sure what she's seeing, but I can made out some wisps of smoke even in the dark. Great. More fire. "The plan is we wait here. If he goes home, fine." If only we could be so lucky. "I don't care. Let someone else catch him another day. I just don't want another hero to face him alone."

I want to protest. I really do. Lung is the driving force behind the ABB, the… third worst gang in Brockton Bay. He's weathered everything the heroes of our city could throw at him and walked away. But we beat him. We took down the single most dangerous parahuman in town. And yet, if we don't do it again, he walks. Again. But we… we got lucky. Taylor had thousands of venomous insects, and we don't have them with us to do it again. Damn it. Resigned, I sneak over and whisper to her, "I like this plan. Especially the part where we don't fight Lung again."

Taylor sharply turns to face me, full on. What? I wish I could see her face. Damn mask.

A large shadow shoots through the air behind Taylor, soars over us, and lands heavily behind me. Holy shit. I spin just in time to see him climb to his feet, gravel tumbling from his knees, the last few clinging a few extra seconds. ...I just had to open my mouth…

«"Lung"»  
«Level "43"»  
«The Dragon of Kyushu»

"Flank him!" Taylor yells, dashing left.

I charge right, away from her. The quotation marks are new, so I throw out a quick «Observe».

«The world-infamous leader of the Azn Bad Boys and only parahuman to survive fighting an Endbringer one-on-one. Controls fire and regenerates. Grows in power over the course of a fight, eventually turning into a dragon. Recently defeated by a pair of rookie heroes on their first night out.» Heh.  
«Lung is currently suffering from a potent blend of insect toxins, delivered in mass quantities. Currently at half power for the next few minutes while his regeneration focuses on the venoms.»

Plus side, he's weakened. Minus, time limit. If we don't beat him now, we might never get a chance like this again. Gotta move.

Tiny black dots and fuzzy shadows gather from the gloom and flow into Lung's face. Eyes, nose, even ears if I'm seeing right. I really hope Taylor has something poisonous in there. Maybe it could buy us a few more minutes of half-power Lung.

"Muh… Mutherfawker!" Lung ignores me to launch two streams of fire at Lady Bug. She flings herself clear, rolling several times to take cover behind an air conditioning unit.

I take advantage of Lung's distraction to activate «Zombie's Hide» and step up off one of those little pipe chimney things. I really shouldn't try this in a real fight, but with him focused on Lady Bug, I've got a great opening, so I «Power Strike» a roundhouse into the back of his head. Not only does it actually hit, the loud 'crack' is from his head instead of my foot. «Critical Hit!» He stumbles away and blasts his own face with fire. Did I just concuss him or something? Bugs, right. Taylor's probably got gnats in his sinuses by now.

Lady Bug's golden figure jumps out from behind her cover with a yelled «Rising Strike». My god, those just don't work on Lung. He slides right around it and hammers a powerful kick right into her diaphragm, launching her away. If I were in her position, I'd be thanking the heavens for armor. That skid looks like it has some serious road rash potential.

...she's not getting up. Lung's still roasting his face, so she must still be directing insects at him, but I've got to hold his attention. I chain as many «Power Strikes» as I can enunciate together and make an important discovery. I don't _have_ to call out every strike to pull off the technique, but it does do a bit more damage. It's a little easier to squeeze out a few extra attacks if I'm not wasting all my wind on vocalizing. I wonder how long I could have been doing this for...

When he got back up Lung was tripping over his own feet and the only target he could hit was his own face. Now? He's moving faster and more powerfully with every moment. Aim's still shit, but it's actually taking some effort to dodge now. And he's got scales again, spreading across his stomach. I need Taylor back in this fight.

"«Power Strike!»" Hey, every bit helps. And it looks like two simultaneous punches only take one shout. «Critical Hits!» Lung actually slides a few feet back, a few scales on his abs cracked by the force. And now I'm overextended. Crap. This is going to hurt.

Lung winds up for a huge slash as his claws form. I don't flinch, not even when he… flips over me, roaring in pain. Hey! Taylor got him with a «Rising Strike»! It happened! He bounces a few times but recovers almost immediately. He starts throwing fireballs _everywhere_. Wow, his aim sucks worse than Bowser. It's probably due to the flies coating his eyes. Go Taylor.

Still, quantity has a quality of its own, and I was just barely staying ahead of the frankly absurd number of flames he's launching. It is weird just how many of them aren't going anywhere near _either_ of us. What's he even aiming at? Oh, Taylor's made some «Swarm Clones». He must be totally blind right now.

«-120 HP» Lung's flames are hot enough that what looks like a particularly close miss still roasts me a bit. «-120 HP» Heck, there's enough of them «-120 HP» that it's impossible to avoid «-119 HP» everything. I still manage to get close enough to risk a drop-kick «Power Strike». It's more than a bit of a gamble, and I usually wouldn't risk it, but Lung is distracted and right by the edge of the roof. He flips over the side and crashes to the ground.

Clearly, a one-story fall means nothing to the man who fought Leviathan to a draw, and he jumps back onto the roof, a stream of flames from each hand washing over both of us. «-223 HP» Nope, that's a swarm clone he hit by Taylor. And another air conditioner. I'm not sure if anyone in the building under us can hear this fight, but they'll certainly notice when the AC fails completely.

"Cockshlucker!" Lung's slurring speech will probably be funny in retrospect. "I'm going -" He gags on nothing. Well, he probably just got a swarm of bugs down his throat, but I really can't tell with this poor light. He gets revenge with a full blast to Taylor's chest.

Lady Bug comes to a halt mere inches before her momentum would have carried her off the roof. Lung's apparently not done with her though, as he stalks over to her prone form. Guess he hasn't learned his lesson about turning his back on either of us just yet. Seriously, the now seven-foot tall Yakuza-wannabe just strolls past me like I'm not worth his attention. I educate him with a low «Power Strike» kick just over his butt. He stumbles towards the edge, but recovers. Just in time for Taylor to neatly throw him into the street. ...I think I'm getting Aikido envy…

In case I wasn't already in complete awe of Lady Bug, Taylor cements her place as the supreme badass of our team by leaping off the roof and catching the rising Lung midair with a positively brutal «Grounding Strike» to the face. As his plummeting form cracks the pavement, she lands on him and «Finishing Strikes» him into lala land. Damn.

«1315 XP»

«Your reputation with the Azn Bad Boys has decreased!»

Before I can process just how incredibly lucky I am to fight alongside her, a massive motorcycle roars into the ally and stops with its headlights illuminating the incredible scene. Lady Bug looks fully iconic, golden armor shining as she stands atop the silver-scaled dragon-man, battered bat still laying flat against his skull. The only thing that could make this look better would be if she still had her cloak and it was still falling into place. Add a little motion to the tableau.

The rider on the motorcycle is iconic enough on his own. Dark blue, almost black power armor with some silver details, a chevron visor with exposed (and bearded) chin. The huge polearm is completely unnecessary in identifying the new arrival as Armsmaster, head of the local Protectorate. Holy shit, we're about to meet a legend! Not Legend-legend, just a legend. Still. Holy boop.

I don't quite hear what Taylor's saying down there, but it's probably not too important. What is important is getting down there and trying to make a good first impression. If we play this right, get some serious rep out of it, it'll be easier to talk Taylor into joining the Wards with me. If I've learned anything tonight, it's just how dangerous these streets can get. And how important back-up can be.

On the subject of good first impressions, I'm topless. And it seems that my pants got torched at some point. The right leg is just plain gone, and the left barely covers my knee. A quick feel check is apparently the final straw for a particularly burnt section on the back, and I'm now feeling the breeze down south. Time for a quick change.

Green tee and blue jeans is not the most cape outfit out there, but it's all I've got. I drop «Zombie's Hide» while I'm at it. Not need to waste MP out of combat. At least I've got this helmet instead of whatever slagged remains would be left of the bike helmet I started the day with. Still, short sleeves and gloves? If we hadn't just KOed Lung (twice!), no one would take me seriously in this.

While I'm at it, I clear out the alerts that had been pilling up during the fight. «+4 Jeet Kune Do», «+2 Dodge», «+2 Power Strike», «+2 Elemental Resistance», «+1 Light Armor Mastery», «+2 Zombie's Hide», and «+1 AGI». That's two stats tied with my INT. I'll have to do something about that soon.

Ladders are bad enough climbing. Descending? The rusty contraption rattles with every step and I stomp down hard when I try to take one extra step after I hit the ground. Lady Bug and Armsmaster are staring at me, so I jog over to spend the least amount of time possible as the center of silent attention. Seriously, it's a little creepy.

"Come join us." God bless you, Taylor. She breaks the silence and (unnecessarily) waves me over. "Armsmaster, this is Beetle Knight. He's a…" There's a slight pause. It's probably too much to hope that an experienced hero missed it. "Brute/Thinker combo."

«Your reputation with The Protectorate has increased!»  
«Reputation with The Protectorate has increased from 'Neutral' to 'Friendly'.»

«Your relationship with Armsmaster has increased!»  
«Your relationship with Armsmaster has increased from 'Strangers' to 'Acquaintance'.»

"Humph." He doesn't sound approving, let alone impressed. It's the shirt, isn't it? Short sleeves and gloves looks absurd.

I would question her using my cover story from earlier on a hero, but I still remember her warnings about how an intelligent organization would use my powers. I'm all for doing my fair share, but I really don't want to be the world's first personal trainer cape. Still, a little more detail is only fair. "Yeah, what she said. Basically, I'm a half-assed Uber with a little extra strength and durability." Victor would be more accurate, but I'd rather compare myself to a putz than a Nazi. Give me a bit to polish my «Jeet Kune Do» and I bet I could take either of them. "I acquire skills a little faster than normal through training."

"And what skills have you acquired?" Why does he sound… dismissive?

Let's see, "A bit of Jeet Kune Do, some tricks with blunt weapons, and a few other minor skills." That about covers it.

"Knight, would you check on Lung?" Taylor gives me the perfect excuse to avoid more awkward questions. Meeting one of my heroes shouldn't be this… cagey.

"Yes, m'lady." The salute was probably over-the-top, but seriously. Armsmaster.

Tinkers and Thinkers are an interesting case. Without any flashier powers to confirm things, you could almost think they're just exceptionally perceptive or inventive baseline humans. As a kid, I wanted to grow up to invent the kind of gadgets Armsmaster fills his gear with. Discovering that mundane technology won't catch up with Tinkertech for centuries, if ever, was worse than getting confirmation that Santa isn't real. (Suggesting that Santa could be real, with adequate Tinkertech, didn't make that conversation any better.)

"Do you have any medical skills?" And he's not done with me. I don't like this feeling, like I've disappointed a parent by breaking a vase or something, but so much worse because I actually care what freaking _Armsmaster_ thinks of me.

At least this time I've got something. "Why, yes I do. Just a bit of «First Aid», but enough to tell if he's breathing and check his heart rate." Booyah.

As I check on Lung (he's down, but not dying this time), I hear Taylor ask about how long it'll take for the PRT to pick up the big lug. A firefly flashes on an old-looking book bound in tarnished silver scales. Sweet!

«You've obtained the skill book [Dragon's Scales]»  
«A magic to grant the user scales like a dragon. 30 MP activation»  
«Blocks 1% of physical damage.»  
«Blocks .5% of fire damage.»  
«50 Additional MP used per minute.»  
«Warning! Can not be used simultaneously with [Zombie's Hide] or other skin transformations until certain conditions are met.»  
«Would you like to learn [Dragon's Scales, Lvl 1]»  
«Yes» «No»

Want. So much want. A little 'wish-could-give-to-Taylor', but mostly want. I'll have to equip «Dragon Slayer» first to get the most from it, and I don't think pulling the whole lightshow five seconds after _not_ telling Armsmaster about that specific power would go over well. I discreetly slide the book and around half a dozen scales into my inventory while pretending to check Lung's pulse. I stand and turn to the other two heroes.

What the fuck! Armsmaster has his halberd aimed at me! No, wait, at Lung. "Hey, no problem." I have no idea what I just missed, but I'm not looking to fight a… what is it? Tinker 7 or 8? I barely even realize when my hands lift into surrendering position.

"Sedate? I'm not sure that's-" Taylor trails off as a puff of carbon dioxide vapor pops out of the weapon.

«-5 HP»

"OW!" There's a sudden pain in my throat, just under my helmet. Are we under attack? I grab my neck, half to check what happened, half to hide that I'm not visibly injured. I find a small hard cylinder lodged there. A quick tug, "Ow?" and I'm inspecting a green-tufted dart.

«You have been poisoned!»  
"Without an antidote, you will lose consciousness in 3… 2 seconds.»

"Ooh?" That doesn't… "I feel…" Help.


	24. Boss Fights 3-4

Taylor Hebert and James Barron vs. Lung. Round 2. Beta by Faria Lyton.

* * *

 **Boss Fights 3.4**

Even though I couldn't even catch my breath, my control over my bugs was as strong as ever. Lung had destroyed most of my venomous bugs, but I still had fire ants. While keeping up the attack on his eyes and ears with less useful bugs, I directed flying bugs to drop my ants all over his body. I sent them after softer points like his armpits, behind his knees, inside his elbows, his navel, and his crotch. All across his skin I had lesser bugs: gnats, mosquitoes, fleas, and flies bite him. I sent stink bugs up his nasal passages and had them release their chemicals. It still wasn't enough.

I simply couldn't afford to just lie down on the gravel roof any longer. Merely breathing challenged me, and rolling to my feet was a struggle, but James needed me. Lung was growing stronger. I hefted my bat and returned to the fight. Lung's back was to me and he didn't seem to notice me. Given that he had moths buzzing in his ears, his hearing was probably shot. I announced my return to the fight with used an unvoiced «Rising Strike» from behind. This time it was Lung that went bouncing along the roof. He didn't stay down. He stood up and began throwing erratic flame blasts in our general direction. Fortunately, his aim still sucked. I distracted him with «Swarm Clones» and made sure there were always bugs attacking his eyes, so that his aim didn't improve. I didn't think my «Swarm Clones» looked that real, but Lung targeted some of them with fire blasts. I lost a lot of bugs that way, but better my bugs than me or James. I could hear the rumbling roar of a motorcycle approaching. Hopefully it was the Protectorate like Tattletale had foreseen what seemed like ages ago. We could really use the help.

While I circled to the right to get out of Lung's front arc, James veered slightly left and kept charging. He avoided the worst of Lung's blasts, but had to be at least slightly singed. It paid off when he closed with lung and leapt into the air and kicked Lung in the chest with a cry of "«Power Strike»!" Lung sailed backward and off the roof tumbling to the ground below.

Falling off a one-story building hardly fazed Lung. He pushed himself back onto his feet and leapt back up. As he sailed above our heads he let loose with twin blasts of fire from his hands that were growing stronger. He wasn't anywhere close to me, but one of my «Swarm Clones» and a helpless air conditioner unit died; the bugs biting his eyes probably had a lot to do with that. He landed on his feet and charged toward me throwing fireballs and screaming, "Cockshlucker!" Lung slurred. "I'm going – " His words cut-off as I took advantage of his open mouth to shove a few dozen flies down his throat.

The smugness that I felt from shutting him up was short-lived. I zigged when I should have zagged and Lung tagged me with a fire blast in my fake breasts. At least the extra padding actually came in useful, but I was still blown back and off my feet. I was able to turn that into a backward rolling breakfall that almost sent over the edge of the roof. Lung was still bearing down on me as I rolled to my feet, but in his eagerness to get me, he'd ignored James, or perhaps just hadn't seen him. James had the advantage of wearing black pants and soot stains instead of a glittery gold costume.

James let Lung run past him as he did a spinning kick and «Power Strike» to Lung's lower back. Lung went stumbling toward me off-balance. I was not missing an opportunity like this again, I dropped my bat, moved in to him and did an Aikido throw on Lung that sent him sailing up into the air and out into the street.

Of course, that didn't end it. Lung started to rise. From the sound of the motorcycle and the death splats of my mapping bugs, whoever was approaching was about to face an angry Lung. I scooped up my bat and charged. When I reached the edge of the roof, I stepped up on the low wall, and vaulted up into the air at Lung. The move had been reflexive, something I'd picked up from «Gymnastics», but my bat was all «Aikido» held with both hands forty-five degrees behind my head and poised to drop a «Finishing Strike» on Lung. However, as the air whistled past me, Lung leaped up to meet me, so I converted the overhead slash into a «Grounding Strike» instead. My bat connected with his face and sent him slamming down into the ground. I followed him down and followed through with a «Finishing Strike» to his head as I landed on him.

This time Lung stayed down.

«1315 XP»  
«You've gained 1 level!»

«Your reputation with the Azn Bad Boys has decreased!»

«Your title of Novice Hero is retired»

«You've defeated The Dragon of Kyushu.»  
«You've received the title [Dragonslayer]»  
«+50% to reaction and intimidation rolls»

«Apprentice Hero»  
«Obtained by reaching lvl 26»  
«You have taken your next step on your journey as a hero!»  
« _Grow as a Hero and save the world!_ »  
«10% increase in exp gained when mentored by a higher level character»  
«10% increase in skill exp gained when coached by a more experienced character»  
«Only available to level 50»

I didn't even have time to really consider those or the other pop-ups surrounding me because the motorcycle was here now. The rider pulled to a halt, and spotlit me with his headlights. Even with a light shining at my face, I could still make out who the new arrival was: midnight-blue power armor with silver trim, V-shaped visor covering his eyes and nose, neatly trimmed beard, big ass halberd – Armsmaster. While I was sure his armor was highly effective, it also worked artistically. Overlapping plates mimicked muscle groups, giving his armor a very human and masculine appearance. He even had separate segments on his abdomen giving him solid steel abs. That certainly made me feel better about my fake boobs.

«Fashion Rating, Impressive. +50% to Reaction Rolls, +25% to Intimidate, -30% to Stealth. _Don't you just love a man in power armor?_ »

He was the leader of the Brockton Bay aka East-North-East Protectorate. On those posters with the Protectorate's best assembled in a wedge formation he was one of those guys in the wings. I'd once owned underwear with his emblem on it. He was probably the biggest single cape on the side of the good guys that called Brockton Bay home. And, he'd caught me smashing someone's skull in with a bat.

"Um, it's not what it looks like. This guy is Lung. If you don't hit him really hard he gets back up again."

Armsmaster parked his bike, grabbed his halberd and stepped off it. Damn, he looked huge in person. "That's true enough. Are you sure you didn't hit him too hard?" He had his weapon loosely in one hand with the shaft resting on his shoulder.

"He's still breathing." I stepped off of Lung's body and lowered my bat. I didn't really have any place to holster it. "He should be good eventually."

Armsmaster nodded like that made perfect sense. "I think I would have heard if there were any golden armor bat-wielding capes active in Brockton Bay. Is this your first night? Or, are you just new to the area?"

"First night." But, not my first fight. "I'm Lady Bug. My partner, Beetle Knight, should be joining us shortly." According to my bugs James was changing clothes. That was understandable considering what little was left of his costume, and about damn time he changed in privacy.

«Your reputation with The Protectorate has increased!»  
«Reputation with The Protectorate has increased from 'Neutral' to 'Friendly'.»

«Your relationship with Armsmaster has increased!»  
«Your relationship with Armsmaster has increased from 'Strangers' to 'Acquaintance'.»

"And the two of you took out Lung, by yourselves?" The tone of grudging respect in his voice was shaded with a little doubt.

Was he asking if the Undersiders helped us? "Well, Beetle Knight, me, and several thousand bugs under my control." I show off a little by calling upon a few moths that survived the fight to flutter about me. "That blow I just gave him wouldn't have put him down if his blood wasn't full of spider venom." And this night was turning into a clusterfuck. Taking out Lung should be a good thing. Almost killing him, probably not so good. Consorting with known villains, not something I wanted to be known for.

"Really? So you're a Brute and a Master then?"

I shrugged trying be nonchalant. When I pictured my hero debut it was taking out a few gangbangers not almost killing Lung. Despite the refresh from the level-up I really wanted this night to be over, yet I also wanted to make a good impression. "I'm more a Master than a Brute. I know the costume doesn't look it. I had a cape that sells the bug portion of Lady Bug, but Lung's a pyrokinetic."

Armsmaster didn't reply immediately. I couldn't see his eyes behind his visor, but I could see his head tip down slowly and then back up. Eww. Unless Armsmaster was dozing off in the middle of our conversation, he'd just checked me out. He was old enough to be my father. I crossed my arms over my fake boobs, letting my bent and bloodied bat fall to the pavement.

"You're telling the truth about that at least," he said as he approached closer. "Do you need a hospital?"

"No, I'm fine." Physically at least, and what did he mean about telling the truth? "Lung might. Hard to tell. He almost died, but five minutes later he was back up and fighting." Behind us, my bugs had discovered something I was pretty sure was another skill book. I really didn't want to have to explain that to Armsmaster. I needed to keep his attention. I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. "We both came close to dying."

"Sounds like you almost hit both extremes: too much force and too little. If you join the Protectorate, we can help you with that. You took down Lung, so you've obviously got potential. As a member we can help you focus that potential, learn to control your powers, and you'll have teammates to back you up."

"Wards." I said quickly. His gaze still seemed fixed on my chest. "I'm not eighteen." Whoa cowboy. Jailbait. Stay away. I had zero interest in joining the Wards. I already had a partner whose power was all about training up. James had his own virtual reality combat simulator. Why would I want to fling myself into a mess of teenage drama, adult oversight and schedules?

Our conversation was interrupted by the clattering of a metal ladder as James descended to the street and jogged over to join us. His costume had been awful before and after the fight it had been little more than rags, but now he was in his street clothes except for his helmet. I ran an eye over his outfit: bright green tee shirt, distressed blue jeans, old sneakers, and his glossy black helmet with the bug eyes and triple horns. He looked goofy.

«Fashion Rating = Cheesy, -30% to initial reaction rolls. _Poor dear._ »

I ignored the window and waved to James. "Come join us. Armsmaster, this is Beetle Knight. He's a…" Trump/Breaker/Brute/Thinker. Nope, that revealed too much. How had James said it? "Brute-Thinker combo."

"Humph." Armsmaster was clearly unimpressed.

James joined us and bobbed his head at Armsmaster. "Yeah, what she said. Basically I'm a half-assed Über with a little extra strength and durability. I acquire skills a little faster than normal through training."

Armsmaster turned his attention to James. "And what skills have you acquired?"

"A bit of Jeet Kune Do, some tricks with blunt weapons, and a few other minor skills."

We didn't really want Armsmaster to ask too many questions about James. "Knight, would you check on Lung?" This would give James a chance to pocket any loot as well as use «Observe» to make sure Lung wasn't dying again.

"Yes, m'lady." He threw me a salute and went off to Lung.

Armsmaster frowned. "Do you have any medical skills?"

"Why, yes I do," replied James smugly. "Just a bit of «First Aid», but enough to tell if he's breathing and check his heart rate."

When did James get «First Aid»? Must have been from helping Lung, but I didn't get it. Fuck, I'm maxed out on skills. I really needed to drop a few points into INT, but so not important right now. I stepped in front of James to try to block Armsmaster's view. As I did I had a firefly I'd landed on the suspected skill book flash once. "So when will someone be here to secure him for transport?"

"Soon, but not soon enough." His voice had a hard edge to it now that could cut glass, and he'd shifted his halberd so he was holding it in both hands and pointing it at me. "Move aside. I need to sedate Lung."

Eeep. So that's what it felt like to be on the receiving end of the «Intimidate» skill. I needed to stall… No I didn't. James had stored the book. "Sure." I stepped aside.

"Hey, no problem." James was behind me, but I had bugs on him so I could tell he'd gone so far as to raise his hands up to his shoulders in the I-surrender gesture.

Wait a second! "Sedate? I'm not sure that's-"

Armsmaster aimed his halberd at Lung. It made a pfft sound that registered at the same as James staggered backwards clutching his throat. "OW!" I turned around to see him pull a green-feathered dart out of the side of his neck. "Ow?" James looked blankly at it and blinked. "Ooh? I feel…" He took a few drunken steps, fell on his ass, then flopped on his back.

I whirled around at Armsmaster as thousands of bugs took to the air buzzing their displeasure. "What the fuck did you do to him?!"

* * *

Game Mechanics for Boss Fights 3.3 and 3.4

«Aikido +3», «Acrobatics +2», «Blunt Weapon Mastery +2», «Combat Mapping +2», «Dodge +3», «Fashion Design +1», «Finishing Blow +1», «Grounding Strke +1», «Intimidate +2», «Light Armor Mastery +1», «Mental Control Area +1», «Physical Resistance +1», «Rising Strike +2», «Sense Processing +1», «Swarm Clone +1», «Swarm of Doom +2», «Tactics +2», «STR +1», «AGI +2», «VIT +1»


	25. Taylor's Character Sheet - Arc 3

Taylor's Character sheet as the end of Arc 3 - Boss Fights. For my own sanity I reorganized Taylor's skills alphabetically. There is some new content as the game mechanics for some of the new skills: Swarm of Doom, Clone Swarm and Tactics were not shown in the storyline.

 **Taylor Hebert aka Lady Bug**

 **Level: 26**

 **Titles**

 **Active: Dragonslayer  
** +50% to Reaction and Intimidation rolls  
 _Before long, every soul on Earth will know the Dragon is defeated!_

 **Inactive: Apprentice Hero  
** 10% increase in XP gained when mentored by a higher level character  
10% increase in skill exp gained when coached by a more experienced character  
Only available to level 50  
 _Grow as a Hero and save the world!_

 **Inactive: Unaffiliated Parahuman  
** +20% Reaction rolls with your fellow rogues.  
 _Hero? Villain? Just show me the money._

 **Inactive: Apprentice Undead Hunter  
** 30% increase in attack damage against the undead.  
30% increase in defense versus the undead.  
All stats plus 5 while facing the undead.  
 _Become an Undead Hunter and eradicate the undead!_

 **Retired: Novice Hero  
** 10% increase in exp gain for stats  
10% increase in exp gain for skills  
Only available to level 25  
 _With great power comes great responsibility._

 **Stats**

 **STR: 16  
** **AGI: 24 (23+1)  
** **VIT: 28  
** **INT: 35 (34+1)  
** **WIS: 60  
** **LUK: 20 (19+1)**

 **Unspent Points: 54**

 **Skills**

 **Acrobatics (Passive) Lvl 4 Exp 91.5%  
** Exercises developing or displaying physical agility, balance and coordination, +2.0% AGI  
Acrobatics provides bonuses when attempting feats such as rolls, vaults and balance.  
Penalties apply while wearing medium or heavy armor.

 **Aikido (Passive) Lvl 13 Exp 56.6%  
** A martial art with a focus on turning the momentum of opponents' attacks against them.  
Passively increases knockback and speed of bare-handed throws, holds, disarms, and redirects by 195%  
This skill confers expertise in falling safely. Save vs. AGI to mitigate falling and knockback damage and avoid [Prone] status.  
While using a traditional weapon: Tanto, Jo, Bokken or Katana, [Aikido] increases the effect of the relevant skill by 19.5%  
Skill level in [Aikido] may not exceed character's [WIS]  
 _The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent slaughter._

 **Blunt Weapon Mastery (Passive) Lvl 16 Exp 82.6%  
** Allows user to freely handle blunt weapons.  
160% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons.  
80% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.

 **Clairsentience Blocking (Sustained) Lvl 89 Exp 93.4%  
** The ability to selectively block out clairsentience to prevent sensory overload.  
 _The voices. Someone turn off the voices!_

 **Combat Mapping (Sustained) Lvl 13 Exp 29.6%  
** By the use of controlled proxies a map of the battlefield is created.  
Negates [Stealth] of tagged foes and penalties for blindness.  
Grants limited awareness of zone of control and combat bonuses versus all tagged opponents.

 **Computer Programming (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%  
** Allows the user to read, write, debug and use computer programs. +1% INT  
At this level, the user has a BASIC comprehension and will have difficulty with any other programming language.  
 _10 PRINT "Hello World!"_

 **Cooking (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 32.4%  
** By the combination of raw ingredients tasty meals can be created.  
Eating food can restore The Gamer's HP and MP. Higher quality meals restore more of both.  
Meals created out of special ingredients can provide short term stat bonuses and/or buffs.  
 _Healthy foods are good for you._

 **Cryptography, Passive Lvl 6 Exp 85.7%  
** A skill for making and breaking codes and ciphers. +2% INT  
 _A1, B2, C3, no you didn't sink my battleship._

 **Detect Enemies (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 16.1%  
** A skill to detect hidden enemies.  
1% increase to spot hidden enemies  
 _Do you hear what I hear?_

 **Dodge (Sustained) Lvl 16 Exp 30.1%  
** A dedicated action to avoid an attack. +160% to Agility while dodging  
 _Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee._

 **Entangle (Sustained) Lvl 11 Exp 78.7%  
** The ability to tangle opponents in nets and snares via proxies  
Successfully entangled opponents must save vs. STR or otherwise destroy the entangle to move.  
+110% increase in attack speed with entangles.  
+110% increase in accuracy with entangles.  
 _Come into my web said the spider to the fly._

 **Entomology (Passive) Lvl 5 Exp 0.0%  
** The science of the study of insects.  
 _There are 200 million insects for every human being on Earth_

 **Fashion Design, Passive Lvl 12 Exp 43.8%  
** You know how to design clothes for both utility and appearance.  
Well designed clothes can provide bonuses to reaction rolls, defense, and other stats.  
 _You look mahvelous, dahling._

 **Finishing Blow (Active) Lvl 10 Exp 80.1%  
** Allows user to strike an incapacitated target for bonus damage.  
250% increase in critical rate.  
1000% increase in attack damage.  
Can only be used on prone opponents.  
 _... and stay down!_

 **Gambling (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%  
** Knowledge of games of chance and stratagems for success. +1% LUK  
 _Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do_

 **Grounding Strike (Active) Lvl 2 Exp 17.9%  
** Knocks the target out of the air. 30% increase in attack damage per foot to ground.  
 _...and knock 'em down._

 **Invertebrate Clairsentience (Sustained) Lvl MAX  
** The ability to receive the sensory input of invertebrates within control range.  
This includes sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, equilibrium and kinesthesia.

 **Invertebrate Control (Sustained) Lvl MAX  
** Grants the ability to mentally command all invertebrates within control range.  
 _When in doubt more bees._

 **Intimidate (Active) Lvl 3 Exp 42.5%  
** A skill to frighten your opponents or get them to act in a way that benefits you.  
Requires a verbal threat or display of prowess. Targets must make a save vs. fear.  
+30% to intimidation rolls. Circumstantial and gear bonuses may apply.  
 _You're a little scary sometimes, you know that?_

 **Knife Mastery (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 15.2%  
** Allows user to freely handle knives.  
10% increase in attack speed with knives.  
5% increase in attack damage with knives.

 **Knife Throwing (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 24.1%  
** Allows user to throw knives.  
10% increase in accuracy with thrown knives.  
5% increase in attack speed with thrown knives.

 **Light Armor Mastery (Passive) Lvl 12 Exp 99.2%  
** You learn how to properly move and fight in Light Armor.  
60% additional armor, 28% decrease in armor fatigue  
 _Lightly armored means light on your feet. Smart._

 **Lingering Command (Sustained) Lvl 23 Exp 84.2%  
** This skill determines how long affected creatures will continue to follow mental commands when no longer controlled.  
Commands linger for 69 minutes.

 **Mental Control Area (Passive) Lvl 21 Exp 5.2%  
** This skill determines the ZoC, Zone of Control, of the character's active mental powers.  
ZoC is 10 meter radius per level, currently 210 meters

 **Multitasking (Passive) Lvl MAX  
** The ability to manage 10 to the 48th power concurrent mental operations at the same time.  
This ability is limited by the input and output channels available to the character.

 **Physical Resistance (Passive) Lvl 2 Exp 30.5%  
** The body's durability increases and you take less damage.  
6% decrease in damage from physical attacks.

 **Power Strike (Active) Lvl 3 Exp 64.0%  
** Strikes the target with strong force.  
45% increase in critical rate.  
150% increase in attack damage.  
 _Batter up!_

 **Rising Strike (Active) Lvl 10 Exp 0.9%  
** Knocks the target into the air. + 150% increase to knockback.  
 _Set 'em up…_

 **Sense Processing (Passive) Lvl 19 Exp 38.3%  
** The ability to process non-human senses without backlash. Chance of backlash increases with more inhuman senses.

 **Singing (Passive) Lvl 3 Exp 22.4%  
** With Singing you can impress and inspire audiences.  
+30% to Performance checks, +30% to Busking  
 _I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony_

 **Stealth (Passive) Lvl 5 Exp 17.9%  
** A skill to remain hidden and avoid enemy notice  
10% bonus to remain hidden while stationary  
5% bonus to remain hidden while moving  
You cannot use Stealth when already spotted by an enemy.

 **Swarm Clone (Sustained) Lvl 3 Exp 48.3%  
** The use of proxies to create decoys within control area.  
30% bonus to quality of created decoys.  
 _All warfare is based on deception_.

 **Swarm of Doom (Sustained) Lvl 7 Exp 55.2%  
** The ability to inflict continuous damage on all opponents inside control area via proxies  
+70% increase in physical damage done by proxies.  
+70% increase in poison damage done by proxies.  
 _If at first you don't succeed, try more bees._

 **Tactics (Passive) Lvl 6 Exp 31.6%  
** The skill for coordinating the actions of individuals and small groups in combat.  
Tactics provides combat bonuses to all team members executing the plan.  
 _Know thy self, know they enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories._

 **Inventory**

 **Taylor's Usual Wardrobe  
** Typical outfit worn to Winslow  
Thrift Shop Hoodie, Bland Shirt, Old Jeans, Clean Socks, Tattered Sneakers, Blue Jogging Bra, Pink Hearts Panties, Smeared Glasses, and Cheap Watch  
Fashion Rating = Unfashionable, -20% to initial reaction rolls, +10% to pity rolls.  
 _Aren't you a sad little thing?_

 **Aluminum Bat**

 **Lady Bug Costume  
** Fashion Rating = Impressive. +50% to Reaction Rolls, +25% to Intimidate, -20% to Stealth.  
Moderate Protection vs. Slashing Damage.  
Moderate Protection vs. Piercing Damage.  
Minor Protection vs. Crushing Damage.

 **Utility Belt**

Pepper Spray, Epi Pen, Screamer, Keychain flashlight, WD40, Duct Tape, Signal flares (x3). Earth-Bet First aid kit, Multitool, Lighter, Notepad and pen, Chap Stick, Tampons, Spare Glasses, Back-up skirt-nets, Latex Gloves, $210 in tens, Dragon Fang Earring, Dragon Scale (x4).


	26. Guild Invites 4-1

With James Barron unconscious Taylor Hebert must face Armsmaster on her own. Beta by Faria Lyton.

* * *

 **Guild Invites 4.1**

Armsmaster whipped his halberd around and pointed it at my face. "Stand down, Lady Bug. That was an accident, a malfunction." He made the word malfunction sound like a curse. "It was also a tranquilizer dart."

I stared at that halberd while «Aikido» whispered suggestions for taking it from Armsmaster's hands. Thousands of bugs swarmed about us. I could take him… I took a deep breath and stilled my bugs. "I'm sorry, it's been a long night." I really didn't want to get into a fight with the head of the local Protectorate, and I had seen that it was only a dart, but… "Beetle Knight went down awfully fast." And I had no idea how many 'hit points' James had by now. He'd leveled several times and was at least a low-tier brute by now. I'd almost killed Lung. Dosage mattered. "Are you sure he's fine? That dart was meant for Lung wasn't it?"

Armsmaster nodded. "It was. However, that was a sandman dart. It's a special tinker-tech formula that Dragon produces for the PRT. It's very safe. He'll just sleep it off for several hours or until someone administers the antidote."

Tinkertech would explain how Shadow Stalker could run around shooting gang members left and right with tranquilizer bolts from her crossbow without ever overdosing her targets. I knew James was breathing steadily, because I'd placed a housefly under his nose. That didn't make me happy about the situation. "So, if there is an antidote, wake him up."

"Unfortunately, while the tranquilizer is very safe, the antidote is not." Armsmaster explained. "Sandman will fight most normal stimulants and keep the subject unconscious. The sedative has to either run its course or be carefully neutralized by a doctor."

"Fine." No, it really wasn't. If James was out for a long time we were going to be in worse trouble with our respective parents. Then again, my father seemed a lot less scary after Legion Zombie and Lung. "When can we get him to a doctor? I'm sticking with him until he's conscious."

"Good. That will give us time to talk about the Wards program. There is a PRT van already in route to here. They should be arriving soon to take Lung into custody. Which reminds me. I still need to sedate Lung."

"Wait!" I held up a hand. "I loaded Lung up with spider venom. He almost died. We hit him with epi-pens to save him. Miscalculated a bit there, and he got back up, but are you sure you want to dose him with a tranquilizer?"

He frowned at me. "Yes, I'm sure. As I said, this drug was designed by Dragon. It's safe. Now step aside."

Right. No need to tell me twice. I got out of Armsmaster's way. He took two steps and pointed his halberd six inches from Lung's thigh. I heard the same quiet pfft sound as before and there was a green dart sticking out of Lung's leg. Just to be safe I put bugs on Lung just under his nose to monitor his breathing as well.

Armsmaster turned to me. I couldn't see his eyes, but his mouth was set in a stern frown. "Now, we have some time to talk. By your own admission you almost killed Lung. I also see wounds that would qualify as excessive force, even brutality against anyone else – except this is Lung. You're right, you had to hit him hard, but you can either give a full statement to me now, or you can give one to the police."

Fuck me. We took out Lung, would it be too much to ask for 'congratulations' or 'job well done'? Apparently it was. "Right, so Beetle Knight and I were out practicing with our powers…" I gave Armsmaster an abbreviated version. I didn't mention Legion Zombie, Illusion Barriers, or how James's powers allowed me to join the party. I just mentioned that we'd run into the ABB and decided to trail them to find out what was going on. When Lung started talking about killing kids, we had decided to stop him. I kept the description of the fight short and focused on my role. I didn't want Armsmaster to get too curious about James's powers. I considered leaving out the meeting with the Undersiders, but it was too likely a video would surface tomorrow. So I breezed over meeting Tattletale and her friends. "Did we do the right thing meeting with them? I don't think we were in good shape to fight after Lung, but they were villains and we just talked."

«Your relationship with Armsmaster has increased!»

"Could you have taken them in a fight?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Seven against two? I didn't have many good bugs left. I could have used numbers against them, but that's slow and it looked like those dogs alone could have kicked our asses. Plus I still don't know what their powers were."

"Hellhound controls and enhances the dogs. Grue projects darkness. We don't know what Regent does, and you just gave us more information on Tattletale than we ever had before. She's clearly a Thinker of some kind. So, well done there. As for whether you should have fought them, you made the right call. They had numbers on you, plus they had just seen your powers and theirs were unknown. Even experienced heroes have trouble going up against unknowns."

It was a huge relief to hear him say that. I still wasn't sure about the Undersiders, but they hadn't seemed that bad for villains. Maybe what Tattletale said about shades of grey had some truth to it?

"Count it as a good thing that all they wanted to do was talk." Armsmaster was smiling now. "You captured Lung and brought back valuable intel on a group we had almost nothing on. What you did tonight was spectacular. You took a major villain off the street."

«Your relationship with Armsmaster has increased!»

The word spectacular rung like bells to my ears. I could feel my face getting heated. Thankfully, he couldn't see me blushing under my mask. "I can't take all the credit. Beetle Knight helped a lot."

"Of course." Armsmaster's tone was oddly neutral, then he changed gears. "The PRT van should be here soon. We need to talk about one more thing, where do you go from here?"

My heart sank. I just knew that he was going to bring up the Wards again. I still wasn't eager to join and James – if they knew what his powers really did, they'd hide him away somewhere safe where he would spend all day every day training others.

"If we didn't have witnesses, I would offer to cover for you and take the credit for Lung. I see too many lights on. There will be video on PHO tomorrow at least. Some of them might even try to sell their footage to the local stations for some quick cash. Taking out Lung, that's going to have _consequences_."

I shrugged. "More attention than I wanted, but I planned to be a hero from the start." I was more concerned about James. We didn't need that kind of focus on him.

"That's a good thing, but think it through. Lung has an extensive gang throughout the entire Brockton Bay area. More importantly, he has two superpowered flunkies: Oni Lee and Bakuda."

"Yeah, the ABB is really going to hate me now. I knew about Oni Lee, like I said the Undersiders fought him tonight, but I've never heard of Bakuda."

Armsmaster nodded, "Not surprising. She's new. What you need to know about her is that she's a bomb Tinker. She has already engaged in a terror campaign against Cornell University. Lung recruited her recently and brought her to Brockton Bay. Even alone she'd be something of a concern, but put her together with Oni Lee and…" he spread his hands.

I immediately put two and two together. Oni Lee wasn't just a teleporter. He left a clone behind. He was already known for making suicide attacks with grenades. Match him together with a bomb tinker… "Oh fuck, that's bad!"

«Your skill in [Tactics] has increased by 1.»

"Now I want you to consider the danger you'll be in once it gets out that you took down Lung. Without a doubt, Oni Lee and Bakuda will be looking to accomplish two goals. Freeing their boss and getting vengeance on the people responsible."

Fuck, no good deed goes unpunished. With all the hated by the ABB messages that I'd received, I knew he was right. Still, I could see his angle. He was pushing this for a reason. "And you think joining the Wards will make us safer?"

"Of course it will. You'll have support of your fellow Wards and the back-up of the entire Protectorate in case of any altercations."

"I'll think about it." I just wasn't ready. I wasn't that tired physically thanks to repeated level-ups, but after almost dying three times I felt tired. I didn't want to deal with this right now. I wanted to get James revived and go home. "I'll need to talk about it with my partner as well."

Armsmaster nodded his head. "Think about it. Talk it over with your partner, but don't wait too long. You'll be much safer in the wards."

«New Quest Alert: Join a Team!»  
«Join a team or form one of your own.»  
«Goal time: 72 hours»  
«Reward: 7500 XP, Increased relationship with new teammates»  
«Failure: Loss of training opportunities»  
«Accept?»  
«Yes» «No»

Even with James unconscious his weird power had to chip in its two cents worth. As far as I was concerned James and I were already a team. Why would maintaining the status quo cause a loss of training opportunities? I heard the roar of an approaching vehicle followed by the death splatters of some of my outlying bugs.

Armsmaster turned to face the approaching vehicle. "That would be the PRT."

"Good." Hopefully they'd give James the antidote and then we could talk. And to think I'd been worried about what my father would think.


	27. Cut Scene 3-a Armsmaster

Colin Wallis, Tinker and leader of the ENE Protectorate, encounters Taylor Hebert and James Baron in Cutscene 3.a of Co-Op Mode. This chapter was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Scripted Encounters 3.a (Armsmaster)**

My name is Armsmaster, and I am not a people person. Yes, I've heard the jokes that I'm so socially inept that I think I'm good with people. This is patently false. I am well aware of my weaknesses. Delusions are inefficient. I am also well aware of my strengths. I am one of the world's most powerful Tinkers and the head of the Protectorate in one of the most troubled cities in North America. Heroes are outnumbered by villains three to one here in Brockton Bay, and under my leadership we are holding the line.

It's almost three in the morning on a spring Sunday. When you've spent as long fighting crime as I have, you get a feel for certain patterns. Semi-professional and wanna-be criminals who commit premeditated crimes prefer this hour. Not many people are awake to resist or witness the crime, and the few that are conscious tend to be tired. With the spring thaw people are feeling more adventurous. More crime in general, more runners and second-story jobs in particular. And Sunday means less teenagers trying to prove they're tough, more desperate career 'entry-level' workers taking a chance at a huge score, so they don't have to go back to work. Or commit suicide-by-cape. Whatever means they don't have to go back to work in the morning.

I'm patrolling by motorcycle tonight, armed with Dragon's latest iteration Tinkertech tranquilizer, sandman. Its nanite-suspension delivery system (PRT-approved non-replicating) automatically adjusts dosages, giving it an effectively 0% chance of overdose. Shadow Stalker has certainly proven that point with her crossbows. The newest adjustment to the formula should suppress regeneration, theoretically. Now I just need a vill- er, test subject, to try it on.

My police scanner crackles to life, "Attention, all units: Lung has been sighted at Sullivan and Ingram. All BBPD officers are advised to focus on crowd control and containment. Leave this one to the PRT." Ask and ye shall receive. My second-most impressive invention turns smoothly towards the docks.

"Armsmaster, we've got an alert." Miss Militia knows that I've got my scanner and that the one thing the BBPD excels at is dispatch, but rules are rules. We can't acknowledge, especially not on recorded frequencies, that I already know. She reads off the same address, and Lung's PRT assessment even though we both know it already, "Lung is a Brute 4 and Blaster 2 at base level, and can improve over time to an estimated Brute 9, Blaster 7, and Mover 4. Extreme caution is advised."

"I'm on my way." Truer words were never spoken, as I'm almost halfway there before she finishes speaking.

"Do you want me to scramble the team?" Miss Militia's voice loses its procedural precision and fills with unnecessary concern.

"Negative." Usually I'd want backup facing Lung. I may be the leader of the Protectorate East North-East, but I know my limits. "I anticipate being able to get a tranquilizer dart into him before he grows too strong. If we need the whole team, it's too late already."

Ingram is one of the oldest streets in Brockton Bay, originally laid as a wagon trail. Now it's too narrow for two cars to pass and is instead home to dumpsters, rats, and wastrels. It's not the most picturesque setting for me to defeat Lung in, but it's as much as I can really expect in this city.

Dragon broke in shortly before I reached my destination, "Armsmaster, I've been monitoring the 911 calls. Lung fought with two unidentified capes, a female in a gold costume and a male with a dark costume. Reports are contradictory, but it seems they took him down once and he got back up."

"Acknowledged." New capes. I trigger the creation of two new files in my IFF system, but leave everything blank for now. Fighting Lung means nothing as far as hero or villain goes. If there's any truth to the reports Dragon mentioned, they must be powerful. And foolish if they let Lung get back up.

I steel myself for the battle ahead, reviewing to make sure all five firing mechanisms in my halberd are ready on my heads-up display. Magnetic: green. Powder: green. CO2: green. Pneumatic: green. Tension: green. The last two would be useless against even baseline Lung, but still work on powerless criminals, preventing unnecessary wear and tear to the more complicated systems. Both of these systems can also be field-repaired easily and are immune to EMP.

My motorcycle's headlight reveals an unexpected scene as I enter the alley: Lung crashing to the street, his currently 300+ pound frame cracking the pavement. An instant later, a slight figure in gold armor lands on his back and transfers her falling energy into a highly efficient strike to his head. The pavement shatters further.

The yell of " **Finishing Strike** " is less impressive, more disquieting. Lung doesn't have a kill order on his head. I trigger a quick photo for evidence while the weapon is still in contact. My systems immediately beginning labelling all the pertinent details. Oh. She's using a bat. Not exactly what I would expect from a cape in medieval-styled armor. I approve. Bladed weapons are far too dangerous in inexpert hands.

"Um, it's not what it looks like." **NERVOUS - TRUTH** flashes across my HUD. "This guy is Lung." **NERVOUS - TRUTH** I knew that already. "If you don't hit him really hard he gets back up again." **NERVOUS - TRUTH** I'm quite aware of that.

I switch the social analysis system to only highlighting falsehoods, emotional shifts, and suggested scripting as I dismount and retrieve my halberd. "That's true enough. Are you sure you didn't hit him too hard?"

"He's still breathing." She hops to the ground and lowers her bat. "He should be good eventually."

 **BREAK ICE** "I think I would have heard about it if there were any golden armored bat-wielding capes active in Brockton Bay." That's good enough. Now to get information. "Is this your first night? Or are you just new to the area?" I doubt that any cape capable of defeating Lung could have flown under the radar for any length of time, but I've heard people get offended when I make assumptions.

"First night. I'm Lady Bug. My partner, Beetle Knight, should be joining us shortly." Infrared shows a figure on a nearby roof. Probably male, heat signature of the head is misshapen. This Beetle Knight is probably wearing an oddly-shaped helmet. That must be the other cape from the report.

I relax a little. Lady Bug is showing no signs of hostility and didn't defeat Lung single-handedly. If she does attack, I can take her. Still, two rookies beat Lung? "And the two of you took out Lung, by yourselves?"

"Well, Beetle Knight, me, and several thousand bugs under my control." **EVASIVE - FALSEHOOD** A small flock of moths begin orbiting her. Impressive control. I wonder who else helped them? "That blow I just gave him wouldn't have put him down if his blood wasn't full of spider venom."

Smart. Give his regeneration a sufficient internal threat to deal with while continuing to attack externally. She must have some serious muscle to have pulled off that hit. "Really? So you're a Brute and a Master then?" Odd combo, most Masters are only as good as their minion.

The shrug is labelled by my SAS as **FALSE MODESTY**. I've been informed that false modesty is better than none at all, and the most I can aspire to, so I won't call her on it. "I'm more of a Master than a Brute. I know the costume doesn't look it. I had a cape that sells the bug portion of Lady Bug, but Lung's a pyrokinetic."

A cape? Really? That's so rookie. Practicality aside, PR would probably approve. I take a moment to run a full scan of her gear. The baseball bat is battered and unremarkable. The rest of her outfit though… Boron carbide plating encased in spider silk. The mask has been painted white but the rest of the armor is naturally golden. My relevant trivia engine informs me it's the natural color for silk excreted by the Golden Orb Weaver spider. The body suit under the armor is also white. Her breastplate is well-rounded. Feminine, but without the false cleavage many rookie capes insist on. My opinion of her goes up a bit. She's got a red belt buckle in the shape of a ladybug. Branding will probably insist on something a bit more obvious. All in all, very good for a new cape.

It's going to need some repair work after tonight. Soot is very difficult to wash out and it looks like her abdominal plating cracked at some point. Brute or not, that must have hurt.

At this point in my observations, Lady Bug crosses her arms across her chest, dropping her bat. **UNCOMFORTABLE** I've taken too long without speaking. "You're telling the truth about that at least. Do you need a hospital?" I did, the last time my armor cracked. That was when Skidmark and Mush managed to push me off a parking garage.

"No, I'm fine." I increase her estimated Brute rating by a point. **ATTEMPT RECRUITMENT** "Lung might. Hard to tell. He almost died," That takes a lot, "but five minutes later he was back up and fighting." The reports on that were true. Regenerators. "We both came close to dying," she blurts.

"Sounds like you hit both extremes: too much force and too little." Can't kill them, can't lose to them. It's a balancing act. I see my chance. "If you join the Protectorate, we can help you with that. You took down Lung, so you've obviously got potential." I hate recruitment speeches. Dauntless, Miss Militia, Battery, shoot, even Assault is a better choice than me. I get attacked by new capes during dialogue more than any other hero. Just in case, I keep my focus on her center of mass. If she tries anything, I'll be ready. "As a member we can help you focus that potential, learn to control your powers, and you'll have teammates to back you up." I look forward to working with her.

"Wards." Say what? "I'm not eighteen." Well… all the more time to get her trained up? Wards aren't supposed to fight. What a waste.

A clatter of metal on pavement draws our attention to a figure climbing down an access ladder. He's wearing clean street clothes and a truly ridiculous helmet. Green tee, blue jeans. Not bad for daily wear, terrible for a cape. The exposed skin alone… Knit gloves (without sleeves) and velcro shoes make things even worse. Velcro may be efficient, but it gets no respect. And the helmet… Three big horns with a little spike in the middle, big goofy lenses. My scanners say it's made of some pretty tough stuff, so it's not just some stupid prop. But without any matching pieces, one source is most likely: he's wearing a recovered tinkertech helmet from one of those over-the-top Japanese capes. Fanboy. Ugh. I don't believe in a god, but if I did, I'd pray this isn't Beetle Knight.

Lady Bug immediately ruins my hopes by waving him over. "Come join us. Armsmaster, this is Beetle Knight." Shoot. "He's a… Brute-Thinker combo." **EVASIVE - FALSEHOOD**

"Humph." Not a Tinker, not a Brute-Thinker. Fanboy. Don't tell me...

"Yeah, what she said. Basically I'm a half-assed Über with a little extra strength and durability. I acquire skills a little faster than normal through training." **EVASIVE - FALSEHOOD** ...not another one.

"And what skills have you acquired?" Give me something, anything that can disprove my theory.

"A bit of Jeet Kune Do," No! "some tricks with blunt weapons," What does that even mean? "and a few other minor skills." I hate this kind of vagueness. I'm almost certain now. He's a powerless, delusional fanboy and his girlfriend is humoring him.

"Knight, would you check on Lung?" Lady Bug dismisses the idiot.

"Yes, m'lady." He narrowly misses impaling his hand on one of those stupid horns as he salutes. Salutes!

"Do you," I barely manage to resist adding an 'even', "have any medical skills?"

"Why, yes I do," **SMUG** he shoots back over his shoulder. "Just a bit of _First Aid_ , but enough to tell if he's breathing a check his heart rate." There's an odd emphasis to 'first aid' when he says it.

Lady Bug steps between me and the kid **NERVOUS** , "So when will someone be here to secure him for transport?"

"Soon, but not soon enough." Lung already got up once, and this is a perfect chance to test the new sandman. I access targeting data, switch to CO2 firing, send a 'successful capture' signal to the PRT, and point my halberd towards his prone form. Lady Bug is in the optimal line of fire. "Move aside." I order. "I need to sedate Lung."

She pauses a moment, **INTIMIDATED** , then steps aside. "Sure."

The twerp is just barely out of the way. An ordinary marksman would have to hold his fire, but my targeting software is calculating that it would be statistically impossible to miss. Beetle Knight has his hands up like I'm aiming at him. I wouldn't need darts to incapacitate a wannabe like him.

"Sedate? I'm not sure that's-" Whatever she wanted to say, the dart has already been fired.

Instead of the clean straight shot the projectile should have followed, it corkscrews lazily through the air and lodges in Beetle Knight's neck, just below that helmet.

"OW! Ow? Ooh? I feel…" He collapses.

Countless insects (I'll need to recalibrate my HUD to count them in the future) raise into the air as Lady Bug turns on me. "What the fuck did you do to him?!" **ENRAGED - PLACATE**

"Stand down, Lady Bug. That was an accident," it hurts to say the word, "a malfunction. It was also a tranquilizer dart." I swear, if Chris was messing around in my workshop again…

I must have said something right, as the insects calm down. "I'm sorry, it's been a long night. Beetle Knight went down awfully fast. Are you sure he's fine?" **CONCERN**. "That dart was meant for Lung wasn't it?"

While usually I wouldn't share so much information with an independent (for now), it will be easier to handle her if I explain things. "It was. However, that was a sandman dart. It's a special tinker-tech formula that Dragon produces for the PRT. It's very safe. He'll just sleep it off for several hours or until someone administers the antidote."

"So, if there is an antidote, wake him up." **FRUSTRATION**.

"Unfortunately, while the tranquilizer is very safe, the antidote is not." Which is why I'm not allowed to carry it out in the field yet. "Sandman will fight most normal stimulants keeping the subject unconscious." By releasing more sedatives and absorbing the stimulants. "The sedative has to either run its course or be carefully neutralized by a doctor" using a second shot of nanites to neutralize the initial set.

"Fine." **FALSEHOOD - UNDEFINED** Even my SAS has trouble with female-speak. Dragon has rebuffed all my requests that she look over the coding. "When can we get him to a doctor? I'm sticking with him until he's conscious."

"Good. That will give us time to talk about the Wards program." Not much, but I can probably swing the hard sell. Scare her into the Protectorate. "There is a PRT van already in route to here. They should be arriving soon to take Lung into custody. Which reminds me. I still need to sedate Lung."

Her raised hand pauses me. "Wait! I loaded Lung up with spider venom. He almost died. We hit him with epi-pens to save him." I almost interrupt to ask how that would work, but my talent kicks in. Hmm. I've got some ideas… "Miscalculated a bit there, and he got back up, but are you sure you want to dose him with a tranquilizer?" **UNCERTAIN - REASSURE**.

How much venom could a few spiders inject anyway? Stop questioning me. "Yes, I'm sure. As I said, this drug was designed by Dragon. It's safe. Now step aside." I'm not risking a distance shot until I've had time to break down and inspect the firing mechanism. A point-blank shot works well enough, and I take a moment to scan his wounds. Broken ribs, fractured spine, and a depressed fracture of the skull from that last hit. Not to mention the extensive soft tissue damage. I can use this.

With Lung under control, it's time to get the rookie cape who soloed Lung under contract ASAP. I coach my mouth into a practiced stern frown. "Now, we have some time to talk. By your own admission you almost killed Lung. I also see wounds that would qualify as excessive force, even brutality on anyone else - except this is Lung." **PANIC ALERT - SOFTEN TONE**. Pointing out that she would have killed anyone else would be a little excessive, but I'll keep it in reserve. "You're right, you had to hit him hard, but you can either give a full statement to me now, or you can give one to the police." That should throw her off her stride without scaring her too much.

"Right," Lady Bug visibly steels herself. "So Beetle Knight and I were practicing with our powers…" The rest of the story is about what I expected: Lady Bug figured out some tricks with her swarms, practiced a bit with a few weapons, and settled on the bat. Beetle Knight supposedly learned Jeet Kune Do in one day. Uh huh. I'm sure she's exaggerating his part in the battles against Lung, but that kind of loyalty is admirable. Once it's to the Protectorate, rather than an insane boyfriend. She even tells me about meeting with the Undersiders. "Did we do the right thing meeting with them? I don't think we were in good shape to fight after Lung, but they were villains and we just talked." **SEEKING ADVICE**.

"Could you have taken them in a fight?" And kept the idiot safe? Not against those odds.

"I don't know. Seven against two? I didn't have many good bugs left. I could have used numbers against them, but that's slow and it looked like those dogs alone could have kicked our asses." **UNCERTAINTY**. "Plus I still don't know what their powers were."

I've already memorized their files, along with the files on every other parahuman in the Northeast. "Hellhound controls and enhances dogs. Grue projects darkness. We don't know what Regent does, and you just gave us more information on Tattletale than we ever had before." Updating files as we speak, this is gold. "She's clearly a Thinker of some kind. So, well done there." A little praise from a beloved idol can go a long way towards swaying a new hero. "As for whether you should have fought them, you made the right call. They had numbers on you," seven to one with a stubborn bystander in the way, "plus they had just seen your powers and theirs were unknown. Even experienced heroes have trouble going up against unknowns." I always prefer having the correct set of gadgets for a given threat. Even if I can easily defeat most capes without an optimized loadout.

She lets out a huge sigh. **RELIEVED**.

 **SMILE** "Count it as a good thing that all they wanted to do was talk. You captured Lung and brought back valuable intel on a group we had almost nothing on. What you did tonight was spectacular. You took a major villain off the street."

"I can't take all the credit. Beetle Knight helped a lot." **MODESTY**.

I'm sure. "Of course. The PRT van should be here soon." Time to close the trap. "We need to talk about one more thing, where do you go from here?"

 **APPREHENSION**.

Not quite what I was hoping for, but I can work with it. "If we didn't have witnesses, I would offer to cover for you and take the credit for Lung." She seems too savvy to fall for it, but that kind of a capture could cement my legacy. "I see too many lights on. There will be video on PHO tomorrow at least. Some of them might even try to sell their footage to the local stations for some quick cash. Taking out Lung, that's going to have consequences." Legal repercussions: bad cop. Protection from retaliation: good cop. This is going well.

Lady Bug shrugs again. Shrugs are my favorite form of non-verbal communication. "More attention than I wanted, but I planned to be a hero from the start."

"That's a good thing, but think it through. Lung has an extensive gang throughout the entire Brockton Bay area. More importantly, he has two superpowered flunkies: Oni Lee and Bakuda." Insect minions and Brute strength may have been startlingly effective against Lung, but it will take entirely different tactics to survive those two.

"Yeah, the ABB is really going to hate me now." She's very accepting of this. She must not get how bad this is. "I knew about Oni Lee, like I said the Undersiders fought him tonight, but I've never heard of Bakuda."

"Not surprising. She's new." Rookie capes never spend enough time reading the news. And most experienced capes. "What you need to know is that she's a bomb Tinker. She already engaged in a terror campaign against Cornell University." After seeing the aftermath, I really wish we could have recovered some unexploded ordnance to reverse-engineer. "Lung recruited her recently and brought her to Brockton Bay. Even alone she'd be something of a concern, but put her together with Oni Lee and…" **TRAIL OFF** I suppose I'll let her draw her own conclusions.

"Oh fuck, that's bad!" **ALARMED - SOOTHE**.

Perfect. "Now I want you to consider the danger you'll be in once it gets out that you took down Lung. Without a doubt, Oni Lee and Bakuda will be looking to accomplish two goals. Freeing their boss and getting vengeance on the people responsible." Food for thought.

"And you think joining the Wards will make us safer?"

No doubt. "Of course it will. You'll have the support of your fellow Wards and the back-up of the entire Protectorate in case of any altercations." We may even have to confine her to base for a while. Beetle Knight… can go into Witness Protection. In Alaska.

"I'll think about it." **HESITANT** It's a start. "I'll need to talk about it with my partner as well." Shoot me now.

"Think about it. Talk it over with your partner," lose the dead weight, "but don't wait too long. You'll be much safer in the Wards."

 **SURPRISE** That's an odd reaction. The PRT van arriving prevents me from exploring that further. The pick up goes smoothly. I do have to stop the PRT agents from foaming Lung to the ground. We don't have time to wait around while he's glued to the ground. We need to get him into containment before the sandman wears off. I'd like to keep working on recruiting Lady Bug, but I have to ride escort and keep an eye on Lung. At my suggestion, she takes the opportunity to observe PRT first responders in action. It's very important for heroes to familiarize themselves with how our non-powered support teams function.

The initial dose of sandman lasted all the way to the PRT base, so we don't have to make any stops. The second dart while unloading Lung is just prudent. While transferring him into his cell I text Miss Militia to meet a new potential Ward, along with a tentative dossier. With the inroads I've already established, Hannah should have no trouble getting Lady Bug to sign on.

With all the necessities taken care of, it's time to settle things with Beetle Knight. We need to get him woken up and prove that he doesn't have powers. He isn't in critical condition, but he's wearing a costume, so Lady Bug's permission as his 'partner' is enough for us to treat him, as per the Parahuman Emergency Medical Treatment bill. I order a dose of the antidote sent to the infirmary. Pneumatic tubes I built into the walls are the most secure way to move sensitive chemicals.

..ooOoo..

"What do you mean there's no antidote?"

The on-call physician blinks blearily at me. **SLEEP DEPRIVED** I wish the higher-ups would take me seriously when I say how inefficient it is to rotate our doctors' schedules. We need them alert. "Shadow Stalker brought in a fuck-load of perps tonight, so we used up the old run." **CRANKY - OFFER COFFEE**.

"I personally supervised the delivery of the latest batch at 1700 hours. Why can't you use it?" Shoot, why didn't they use it instead of the technically expired batch?

"Someone screwed the pooch on scheduling, so that fuckwit intern from BBU was the only one with the time to load the tubes. He says a hot chick in a sundress tripped him." **DISBELIEF**. "I bet the dumbass tripped over his own feet staring at her ass or something." **STRESSED** The doctor's tone isn't very professional.

I count to ten before replying. "What about the saved doses from the first batch? The ones we were saving to check how long it actually takes for the counteragent to expire?"

"It should work, but it might be a bit slower and we'd have to keep an extra close eye on him."

Good enough for me. Since we have to monitor this extra carefully, I don't even have to suggest using the Tinkertech body imaging device I built. A few minutes of observing his circulatory system is enough to establish that the old antidote is working nearly exactly how we expected. Before the supposed cape can wake up, I turn my focus to his brain. Hmm. Takes a bit more power than I'd expect to get a clean read. Maybe he is a cape. I have been known to be wrong on rare occasions. It would certainly make recruiting Lady Bug easier. I just manage to get the image right before he stirs. Nope - Beetle Knight doesn't have a Corona Pollentia, let alone an active Gemma. He doesn't have powers and never will.

Now how to use this...


	28. Guild Invites 4-2

James Baron is still unconscious. Taylor Hebert is not happy. Beta by Faria Lyton.

* * *

 **Guild Invites 4.2**

It must take a special kind of courage to be a PRT first responder. These guys had no powers, but they were rushing into a potential encounter with Lung and the ABB instead of away from it. I had to respect that. Their van pulled to a halt behind Armsmaster's bike, and a squad of five agents almost flew out of the vehicle. Two agents armed with some kind of combat rifle took the lead followed closely by another wearing a containment foam sprayer. The driver and another agent both armed only with pistols hung back.

"Condition Green," announced Armsmaster. "Lung is sandman'd. Two ABB down and injured. One friendly sandman'd. She's a friendly." Armsmaster pointed at me. "Secure Lung for transport. Do not foam."

"Sir, protocol says we use containment foam."

Armsmaster looked annoyed. "And, how long will it take us to get him unstuck from the pavement? I want to get him in a cell before his regeneration can fight off the sandman. I'll ride escort."

The driver nodded. "You heard him. Meier, Levine, get Lung loaded. Kelly, I want a visible presence. Carter, get up on a roof."

The men hustled. Two of them grabbed a stretcher and got Lung on it. One of them ran for the ladder leading up to roof of the building where James and I had fought Lung. One of them moved to the middle and started tossing out roadside flares.

I looked to Armsmaster. "You're riding escort? What about – " I bit my tongue literally as I almost said James. "Beetle Knight?"

"No room for him." Armsmaster sighed. "First response team goes in expecting hostility. It's their job to secure the area and keep civilians out of cape fights. They can also transport prisoners and emergency evac injured, but it's not their job. We need Lung in a cell before his regeneration can kick in, or the ABB tries to mount a rescue mission. There will be some ambulances along soon. Your partner is merely unconscious. We'll have him transported to the PRT building, and you can ride along, but you can help most of all by staying quiet and out of the way. Pay attention and you might learn something. Mop up after a fight is important, even if it isn't glamorous."

"Right." I felt like complaining about James, but I really couldn't fault his priorities. After all villains escaping while being transported happened all the time. I sat down by James and arranged him to look a little less uncomfortable. Given what Armsmaster said about the Oni Lee and Bakuda combination I had my bug-dar on high alert. My bugs were stretched out as far as I could control, and I made sure they covered every nook and cranny.

On the plus side the extra time gave me a chance to sort through my bugs. I needed a different set of bugs for visiting the PRT building. Ever since I came up with the idea for Lady Bug, my plan was to use cute bugs to throw off the creep factor of my bugs. Unfortunately I didn't have many cute bugs left. I settled for some larger and more colorful moths, a few butterflies that I'd woken up, and all the fireflies and ladybugs that I could gather. Not as many as I'd like, but they should suffice to prove I was an insect controller.

I also added quite a few of the smallest bugs I could manage: gnats, itsy-bitsy spiders and male mosquitoes – useful trivia, only female mosquitos suck blood. Just two days of training with zombies had me relying on «Combat Mapping» as much as my eyes, maybe even more than my eyes. I wasn't giving that up just because I was going to PRT headquarters. Plus, I constantly worked my bug skills ever since James's power had clued me in that they could be improved by simply practicing them. Whenever possible I'd order my bugs to leave my control range and return to me. That exercised both «Lingering Command» and «Mental Control Area». I also pushed my «Sense Processing» as much as possible by opening myself up to my bug's senses of smell and taste. Having a good sized collection of hard-to-detect bugs would let me continue my constant practice without drawing attention.

I did watch the PRT agents, but I focused more on clearing out the many pop-ups that I'd picked up. Rather than the more obvious hand gestures at invisible windows, I quietly reviewed and dismissed them with voice commands. I decided to accept the quest to form or join a team. What was his power trying to tell me? I thought James and I were already a team, so why give me the quest? Apparently being in a party together didn't count as joining a team. Did we need to do something more formal? Like choose a team name and publicly announce it? Or did we need to close the tutorial party and open a new one. I set that aside for later and cleared the other pop-ups with quiet whispers. The only time I used hand gestures at all was to drop three points into my INT. I had skill points to spare, and I'd already missed out on «First Aid». I didn't want to miss out on any other good skills because my INT was too low.

I also decided that I really needed to add «Cryptography» to my list of skills that I constantly practiced. That was the one skill that I knew raised my INT. While I was waiting I tried out James's idea and set up two dozen groups of bugs each translating the chatter from the PRT agents into a different cipher. I earned a skill up that way, but it didn't send my «Cryptography» skyrocketing or get me any more INT. I really needed to find a better way to train INT. When I had more time I really needed to see what other skills I could constantly practice with my bugs.

Another PRT van arrived as they were loading up Lung. Armsmaster took off on his bike leading the way for the PRT van hauling off Lung. The PRT guy who seemed to be in charge took my statement. Basically I ran over everything that I'd told Armsmaster again. By the time that was done two ambulances had arrived as well. The two injured ABB members went in one of them while I got to ride along with James.

The two EMTs who ended up transporting me and James to the PRT turned out to be quite chatty. Maybe that was because they worked for the city instead of the PRT. Once they assured me that James was fine and could be awakened at the PRT building, they started plying me with questions. They were very much impressed that I'd taken down Lung and wanted to hear the blow-by-blow. Instead I gave them the even shorter version of the fight, and showed off with some ladybugs and fireflies. I also got to give out my first autographs ever:

"For Jo Brister, my first fan ever. – Lady Bug #1"

"For Marv Gourley EMT, because you don't have to wear a cape to be a hero. – Lady Bug #2"

I included the stylized ladybug that I'd practiced for my sig. The numbering of signatures wasn't my idea. Lots of capes had done it before me, including Parian. While it was considered tacky to number your signatures beyond the first one hundred, that first hundred series of signatures often ended up resold on online auctions for thousands of dollars. Mouse Protector's #1 signature recently sold in the six figures. For me it was free publicity because Marv and Jo would likely end up posting on PHO. After taking out Lung I probably didn't need more publicity, but it couldn't hurt to put a positive spin on things.

The ambulance wasn't using its sirens, but we still made good time. Before I knew it we were at the PRT building. Standing in front of the doors were two PRT agents and Miss Militia. Her costume was deceptively simple. She wore an urban camo military uniform that hugged her curves much more closely than actual uniforms accented with two red, white and blue American flags. One flag was worn as a sash around her waist, the other she wore as scarf hiding the lower half of her face. Brave of her to show so much of her face, but short brunette hair, brown eyes and a slightly tanned skin fit so much of the female population maybe it was enough for her to hide. She currently had some kind of rifle strapped on her back, but from what I knew of her power it could become any weapon known to mankind, limited only by her imagination.

«Fashion Rating: Patriotic +40% to Reaction Rolls, +30% to Intimidate, +30% to Stealth. _Now she knows how to wear a uniform.»_

And there went James's weird ass power again. Why did it feel the need to butt in again? My new EMT fans immediately unloaded him from the ambulance. They pulled out folding wheels turning his stretcher into a gurney and wheeled him toward the building. I moved to follow.

Miss Militia stepped into our path. "Lady Bug, I presume?" Her tone was friendly. I couldn't see her mouth, but I bet she was smiling. "Great job, taking down Lung. We have you classified as a friendly new cape, but I'm afraid you'll still need an escort within the PRT building. That will be me."

Great job. Miss Militia thought I did a great job. She wasn't quite as big a name as Armsmaster, but I was still a huge fan of hers – especially since I triggered. Miss Militia's power wasn't that impressive as far as powers go. She held her own against more powerful capes with nothing but guns and guts. I hoped that someday I could do as well with my bugs. I felt like squealing with glee at her praise, but held it in. "Yes, ma'am. I won't cause problems. I just want to collect my partner and go home. Do I need to hand over my bat?" I didn't really have any way to stow it.

She laughed at that. "I'm not one to ask about disarming. I don't think your weapon poses a danger. Let's get your partner to Medical." She moved out of the way of the gurney and motioned them forward.

Marv and Jo started pushing James's gurney into the building. I followed into the PRT building which looked similar to a hospital lobby: obvious reception desk up front, bank of elevators past it, gift shop off to one side, waiting area with lots of chairs to the other side, and large hallways. I'd never been in the building before although I'd passed by it a few times. It was surprisingly empty as well, just a few PRT uniforms scattered about. Despite the almost mundane appearance I was very much feeling like I didn't really belong here. When I met Armsmaster, I'd just taken down Lung. I'd been impressed, of course, but not overwhelmed. Now some kind of reaction was setting in and I was very much aware that I was in way over my head.

Miss Militia fell in beside me. She had a precision about her walk that made me certain that her costume wasn't a prop and she really was ex-military. "So Lady Bug, we may be waiting a while. Can you tell me a bit about yourself? Armsmaster said you were a Brute and a Master?"

I shrugged at that. "That's what Armsmaster said, but I'm not sure he's right. I'm certainly a Master. I control bugs." I brought my cute bugs for a reason so I had some ladybugs spell out 'HI' for me and added some fireflies to provide some blinking lights.

"Nice." Miss Militia nodded her approval. "You have very good control. Is that how you poisoned Lung?"

"Yes. I hit him with black widows, brown recluses, wasps, hornets, bees and such – I wouldn't have used bugs like that on someone else, but he's _Lung_. He fought Leviathan single-handedly. Plus, he was going to kill kids. Beetle Knight and I couldn't just stand aside and let that happen."

"You're not in trouble for that." She reassured me. "That's a reasonable level of force to use on Lung. He's rated at a Brute four that increases to a Brute nine."

Our conversation was put on pause for a bit as we'd reached a double door labeled "Medical". Unlike medical shows where they just push the gurney through the doors, Marv raced ahead and held the doors open while Jo kept pushing James along. This brought us to an open area that appeared to be nurse's station although there was no sign of a nurse in attendance. Instead a uniformed and armed PRT trooper glanced our way. Jo ignored the trooper and kept wheeling James on the gurney into a room that was conveniently labeled Med Bay 4.

The trooper stood a little straighter and saluted Miss Militia. "Ma'am."

Miss Militia chuckled. "At ease. We're just passing through." She turned to me. "Why don't I give you a behind-the-scenes tour while you wait?"

"I thought I could stay with my partner." Why hadn't Marv or Jo mentioned this?

"I can tell you're concerned about Beetle Knight, but we need to give the medical professionals space to do their thing now."

Fine. I wasn't thrilled to be separated, but I couldn't help James now, and I'd promised to behave. I needed to get it together and not come across like a spoiled child. I took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm just worried about him. We're both also overdue in our civilian IDs. Is there really time for a tour? We need to leave as soon as he is awake."

Miss Militia reached out and gave my shoulder a squeeze. "I've already seen the report from the paramedics. He's just sedated. I'll have them notify us as soon as he is awake. We'll keep the tour short. We can go by the canteen for something to drink. After that, maybe I can introduce you to some of the Wards. I can also arrange for you to make a secure phone call if you like."

"I'll pass on the phone call." My father was no doubt awake and worried sick about me, but calling him now wouldn't do any good. I wasn't even sure what to tell him. I really didn't want to tell him that I was a cape. Besides, while I trusted Miss Militia, I doubted that any phone in the PRT building was truly secure. I wasn't a tinfoil hat type, but the PRT had accumulated a lot of 'emergency' powers to deal with villains and Endbringers. How secure was my secret identity really stacked up against the PRT's 'need to know' about a cape that took down Lung? "But I'll take you up on the tour and meeting the Wards."

She nodded at me. "This way then." She led me back the way we came toward the reception desk. "So, we've established you are a Master, but you disagree about being a Brute?"

"Yeah, because a Brute rating means strength and toughness, right? The ability to take hits?"

"Yes, that's pretty much the definition."

"Then I don't think I have a Brute rating. My powers don't make me any stronger or offer me any protection. That's why my costume has armor in it. I'm just as vulnerable as any other Master."

"Then why were you in hand-to-hand combat with Lung? And Armsmaster said you took Lung down with that bat." We'd made it back to the reception desk and she led me off down another corridor past the ban of elevators.

"It's a just a bat." Okay, maybe it meant a bit more to me. My bat had seen me through Legion Zombie and Lung, but it was still just an ordinary aluminum bat. Also bent now, so unfortunately in need of a replacement. "Anyway, you bring down a baseball bat on most people's head it is going to hurt. The blow I gave him would probably have killed a normal person. Lung just took a little nap."

"Took a nap? You're saying you went hand-to-hand against Lung with nothing more than a baseball bat and a little armor?"

"And Beetle Knight and my bugs." I shrugged. "But, yes. He didn't give us much choice. He was going to kill kids. Sure, I later learned those 'kids' were the Undersiders, but we couldn't step aside."

Miss Militia shook her head. "I don't think you really understand what you've achieved. So, this is the canteen. Why don't I get you a drink and you tell me more about it. I'd really like to know."

The canteen was certainly a step up from Winslow cafeteria. Instead of long picnic tables laid end to end there were round tables scattered like lilypads across a tastefully decorated room. Internal walls divided it into interconnected subareas. Most of the kitchen/serving areas were shut down, but I spotted at least two serving lines, one for sandwiches and one offering a selection of cooked meals. Two separate salad bar islands were shut down as well, but apparently in use during the days. Another serving line was open serving breakfast even at this hour. I was also pleased to sense very few bugs in the kitchen and no rodents. I had quickly grown desensitized to the fact that even the cleanest kitchens had some bugs. However, knowing how bad Winslow's rat and roach infestation was, there was no way I'd ever eat there again.

I took Miss Militia up on her offer and had tea with her. Actually she had coffee. It was a little awkward to sip hot tea through a tiny straw, but I only had a small gap in my mask to let me breathe and speak. I'd already told the story twice before to Armsmaster and the PRT, but this time was more of a chat and less a report. I still had to watch what I said as I didn't want to give away James's true abilities, but going over it with Miss Militia wasn't a chore. She drew out some more details, like how I'd disabled the ABB's firearms before the fight started and some of the conversation with the Undersiders. She was also clearly impressed with what James and I had achieved. That gave me a warm feeling that had nothing to do with the hot tea in my belly.

"What you and Beetle Knight achieved tonight was nothing short of amazing. I know Armsmaster mentioned the Wards to you, but I'd like to extend the offer again. I really wish both of you would join. We can use more heroes like you."

When she asked me like that, a part of me wanted to do the happy dance and scream, 'Yes!' However, my reasons for avoiding the Wards hadn't changed. "I'll think about it."

Miss Militia nodded. "It's a serious commitment to make. I'm sure Armsmaster has already given you the good reasons to join: the protection of a team, support from the PRT, power testing, training, equipment, and having peers that can truly understand you and what you're going through. Why don't you tell me the reasons you're still unsure? Maybe I can put some of your doubts to rest."

Somehow the deal sounded more attractive when Miss Militia described it. Armsmaster had sounded like he was reading from a brochure. Not to mention that James's power had given me that quest to join a team – or make our own. "Several things…" But what to say? I didn't want teenaged drama, but maybe other teenaged capes would understand me. James certainly did. "Well, for one, Beetle Knight and I are partners. If we joined, then we wouldn't necessarily be paired together would we?"

"Not all the time, no. We would rotate you among all the Wards so you could get to know them all. Working with capes with different powersets is important. When you move up to the Protectorate you won't work with just your own team. Capes get moved around and transferred. We would take your preference for being paired with Beetle Knight into account, but working with different powersets teaches you how to counter different powers. That is critically importance in the field."

"I suppose the lack of control is a concern." Being shuffled about did not appeal to me, even if Miss Militia probably had a point about learning how different powersets worked and how to counter them. Fighting zombies was well and good for practicing with my bat, but nothing like the real thing. Didn't mean I wanted to be told what to do. "Beetle Knight and I can set our own hours, patrol where and when we wish."

"I'll grant you that one." Miss Militia didn't seem offended. "But, what you lose in autonomy, you gain in security. You'll have a radio link to the PRT and help just minutes away if you get in over your head."

Not really a problem for us. We could just escape to an illusion barrier. Which maybe we should have done in the second fight with Lung. Somehow in the heat of the battle the possibility of running away hadn't crossed my mind. Hmm, my biggest fear was still the fear that Beetle Knight would be removed from the field. However, I couldn't say that. "I also give up creative control over my look. I spent a lot of time putting together my costume. I don't want to be told to change it."

Miss Militia laughed. "Oh, I don't think you have anything to worry about. You're costume is so heroic our PR team won't make any significant changes. They might even help you by upgrading your gear."

Really? "Well, what about my bugs? Ladybugs are cute." I showed off with another display of ladybugs, forming them into a unicorn shape. "However, in combat I'm going to be hitting people with venomous spiders, wasps and other bugs." As I mentioned my combat bugs I morphed my ladybug art into a spider and then a wasp. "That's scary and not exactly the wholesome image that the Wards usually have." When Shadow Stalker joined the wards, she'd changed from real crossbow bolts to tranquilizer darts.

"First, let me compliment your control. It's even more impressive than I thought. As for your bugs, you might very well be asked to hold back on the more dangerous bugs, but we prefer to keep the Wards away from the kind of fights where you would need bugs like that. Maybe we can help you find less lethal ways of using your powers."

"Maybe." I already had my skirt-nets, but didn't want to get into a discussion about why I hadn't used them against the ABB. I also wasn't impressed that we would be kept out of combat. I wanted to make a difference. "Anyway, I won't be making any decisions without talking things over with my partner first." And according to my bugs he was still out cold.

"I would expect no less." She nodded and stood. "Why don't we go meet some of the Wards? Even if you don't join us we want to encourage communication with friendly independents. Most of them have gone home for the night, but Clockblocker and Vista would like to meet you."

"Really? Okay." I stood up eager. While I wasn't ready to join the Wards, I wouldn't turn down meeting any Ward. I knew a little bit about them both from research and because they were our local Wards. Clockblocker could freeze people in time. Not surprisingly given his name, he was known as a jokester and usually had a good quip for reporters. Vista had joined the Wards at a very young age and been more of a team mascot at first. That was a few years back, and now she patrolled with the Wards. While she had grown a few inches, she was still short and probably younger than me.

Miss Militia took me back to the bank of elevators which we rode upward several floors before stopping on the Wards' floor. We passed another PRT trooper on our way to very large and impressive door. She bent over and looked into some kind of pipe-thing. "Optical scanner," she explained as she straightened up. The heavy doors whirred and opened with a quiet whirr.

While the rest of the building had been rectangular this room was a large dome in shape. Doorways opened off at various points like spokes on a wheel. A bank of computers and monitors were all tied together on side of the room surrounded by a half-dozen chairs. Prominently visible on one of the larger screens was a domino mask icon against a vivid red background. Other screens showed what I recognized as various city landmarks. Presumably this was some kind of monitoring station. Two people in costume sat at this station and immediately rose to meet us.

"I, Blocker of Clocks, bid you welcome, dearest Bug Lady, to our humble abode. Please sit anywhere you like, oh mighty slayer of dragons." His costume was a mix of skintight white fabric and glossy white armor that reminded me of stormtrooper armor from Star Wars. His armor had to be some kind of tinkertech because the glossy white was interrupted by grey clocks. Some of the clocks might have been painted on, but others had moving hands, and still others moved about on his armor. His mask was the same glossy white and completely featureless.

«Fashion Rating: Lacks Character -10% to reaction rolls. _Oh, look at the time._ »

That was… well, there really wasn't much good I could say about his costume, so I guess it wasn't that unfair.

The girl beside him punched him in the arm. "Goof." I easily recognized her as Vista. Her costume was a mix of body armor and form-fitting cloth with a modest knee-length skirt added. Both the armor and the cloth followed the same pattern of intertwining wavy lines in white and forest green. Standing beside Clockblocker, I noticed that except for coloration their body armor was very similar in the cut and placement of the pieces. Perhaps there was a standard Protectorate design? There were some differences. For example, Vista's breastplate had actual breasts, the fake divided kind. Interestingly, she wore a matching domino mask when I was pretty sure that she usually wore a helmet and a visor. Had she partially unmasked for me? It was perfectly clear why she usually wore the helmet and visor. Her domino mask didn't hide her blue-green eyes, her blonde hair in an adorable pixie cut, or just how young she looked.

«Fashion Rating: Cute. +20% to Reaction Rolls, -20% to Intimidate. _How precious._ »

"Can't you be serious?" Vista attempted to glare at Clockblocker, but it only proved the fashion rating to be spot on about her «Intimidate» penalty.

"I am serious. Seriously funny."

Vista sighed. "What our team clown is trying to say is that we're both glad to meet you."

Whoa, they were glad to meet me? "It's an honor to meet the two of you as well. So, what's it like being a Ward?"

Clockblocker laughed. "You would be surprised how often we get asked that. It is not all glory, games, fun and adventure. There are some definite perks. We get to work with some adult heroes. We do ride alongs with all the ENE Protectorate. We're often in the limelight and get treated almost like royalty when we're in costume. However, the reality kicks in: training, training, and more training. Some of that is combat and power training, but we have to learn procedures at multiple levels: PRT, Protectorate, police, state, federal and local. There is a ton of paperwork and the joys of console duty. We do a lot of patrols, but we don't take the fight to major villains like you did tonight. We usually go for the unpowered gang members. We learn a lot. Our job isn't really to be heroes. It's to learn how to fight without dying and survive to be real heroes someday."

Vista looked at Clockblocker in obvious surprise. "That's… pretty accurate really. It bothers me at times. I've been a Ward longer than any of them and will still be a Ward when all the others have moved on to the Protectorate. I want to get out there and take on the villains like you did, but I couldn't take out Lung."

Miss Militia cleared her throat. "Lady Bug. I don't want to detract from what you did tonight, but answer me honestly, were you lucky tonight? If things had gone down just a little bit different, could Lung have won that fight?"

Meaning could James and I have ended up dead? It was all too easy to picture how things could have gone horribly wrong. "Yeah, we were lucky."


	29. Scripted Encounters 3-5

Scripted Encounters 3.5 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission. This chapter comes after Guild Invites 4.2 and is concurrent with Guild Invites 4.3.

* * *

 **Scripted Encounters 3.5**

I wake inside a featureless white tube. It kinda reminds of an alien lab from one of those alien abduction-type movies. "Ah! Ahlen lahbatoey! Nno pwobe!" Who said that?

«Use of an expired antidote has resulted in incomplete healing!»  
«You are no longer poisoned!»  
«You are now drugged!»  
«All actions taken will automatically trigger [Fool's Act]»  
«This effect will diminish with time. 1:58:43 remaining»

«A skill has been created through a special action.»  
«By enduring the primary effects of a toxin, [Poison Resistance], has been created.»  
«Poison Resistance (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%»  
«The body's ability to metabolize toxins increases. 3% decrease in the duration or efficacy of poison effects.»  
 _«I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.»_

A hand grips my ankle and drags me and the gurney I'm laying on out into a grey room. Armsmaster releases my leg. "Ahrmshmasder! Shave me!" Oh God, that's me talking. And I'm _hugging_ the armored hero.

«Relationship with "Armsmaster" has decreased»  
«Relationship with "Armsmaster" is now 'Nuisance'»

That's not really fair. I glare up at him from inside my helmet.

«"Armsmaster"»  
«Level ?»  
«Protectorate ENE Head»

On the plus side, I actually notice the words over his head now. The question marks are no surprise, given his reputation.

«Poison Resistance's level goes up by 1!»  
«Fool's Act's level goes up by 1!»

He manfully ignores my babbling as he carries me out of the lab. And by 'carry' I mean 'doesn't shove me off'. Of course, everything seems more manly with a beard. "Wy da berd? Ahh wahnuh berd to. Ah donn havv won." «Fool's Act's level goes up by 1!» My horns catch on his chestplate briefly before I can turn away. "Ah gotsch hornss doe… to dey mayge mi loog horny?" Please let this be a relatively normal reaction to the antidote. Please let him have seen this so many times it won't be held against me.

«Poison Resistance's level goes up by 1!»

Lady Bug is only two rooms away, in a comfortable but sterile waiting room. I finally manage to dismount Armsmaster, only to find myself wobbling towards Taylor. "Bugg! I mished yoo!" And I faceplant into her breastplate. My head turns to the side as my horns slide across the armor.

«Fool's Act's level goes up by 1!»

Taylor freezes for an awkward moment before pushing me back upright. "Easy there, Knight. You're still a little woozy from the drugs. Take a seat." She guides me to sit down on a surprisingly comfortable seat and sits beside me.

Once I'm seated I notice we have an audience. Every teenaged boy in Brockton Bay (and probably all of New England) is… intimately aware of Miss Militia. Dusky skin, dark hair, and curves that her clearly non-standard fatigues just enhance. "Mish Miller- Milita… _Miss Mi-li-ti-a_." Wow, that took a lot of effort to not completely mangle. A thunderous stage whisper escapes while I'm patting myself on the back for my pronunciation prowess. "I uszed ta dream aboud herrr. Shtill do." I'm never living this night down, am I?

«"Miss Militia"»  
«Level ?»  
«Ever Vigilant»

«Fool's Act's level goes up by 1!»  
«Poison Resistance's level goes up by 1!»

«Relationship with "Clockblocker" has increased!»  
«Relationship with "Clockblocker" has increased from 'Stranger' to 'Acquaintance'»

Laughter draws my attention to another figure. Hey, it's Clockblocker! He's standing next to Vista. Whoa, those moving clocks on his costume are weird in person. "Cockblock! Er, Clockblock! Er. Allwaize wandameat yoo. Gread shensha humah, unlike Armsmater 'ere." I hook a thumb over my shoulder. "Ee uszd ta be mah fav'rit. Wannid the unnies wit his lowgo, bud cout ownlee fine on panties." Of all the words to enunciate correctly… To be fair, I have always wondered why an _adult male_ hero has his logo on underwear for pre- and pubescent girls. "Wise dat?"

«"Clockblocker"»  
«Level 30»  
«Class Superclown»

«Fool's Act's level goes up by 1!»  
«Relationship with "Clockblocker" has increased!»

Clockblocker apparently likes that, as he barks out another short laugh. "Marketing knows how often he gets his panties in a twist, so they made more for him." The drugs are completely responsible for my giggles. Miss Militia and Vista have no such excuse for their chuckles.

Lady Bug puts a hand on my shoulder. "Knight, for your own sake, just stop talking. You'll thank me tomorrow." I'm trying! Everything I think comes out all «Fool's Act». She turns to speak to Armsmaster. I can't even look at him without saying something embarrassing.

Facing Vista is probably the safest bet. No lusty feelings there, no unfortunate comparisons to other heroes jump to mind. She's wearing her iconic green costume. I try to give her a small, friendly wave, but it comes out as a wild flail. "Vishta! Jer mah faborid Werd! Fug yooklitian gee oh meh tree. You needa pishtol. Shewt rount conners an sheet." This is not the time or the place for PHO power stunt discussions. Well, maybe it's the place.

«Relationship with "Vista" has increased!»  
«Relationship with "Vista" has increased from 'Stranger' to 'Acquaintance'»

«"Vista"»  
«Level 56»  
«Escher's Wunderkind»

«Poison Resistance's level goes up by 1!»  
«Fool's Act's Level goes up by 1!»

Taylor's conversation with Armsmaster must not be going well, his voice is getting louder, "He'll get you killed! It's admirable that you want to keep your… friend around, but he doesn't. Have. Powers."

What? "Whut?" Oh, so _now_ I can make myself understood.

"I understand wanting to have powers." An infuriatingly insincere sympathetic tone colors the hero's words, "Every teen wants to be special. Your talent for martial arts is… impressive, but it isn't a power." Now he shifts to lecturing, patronizingly. "Every human who has the potential to develop powers has an extra brain lobe, the corona pollentia. While the exact location and shape varies, widely, it is an additional structure in the brain not present in normal humans. It's not too hard to recognize when there's a significant variance from the norm. And your brain is textbook. You don't have powers, you _can't_ develop powers."

«Your reputation with The Protectorate has decreased!»  
«Poison Resistance's level goes up by 1!»

Of course I have powers. "I haz da powah!" The fist pump seems unnecessary. And I really doubt this is helping prove things. I've got several powers I can show off. «Gamer's Body» is obvious enough, but maybe- "Tah-lahdy Bug, forg me!" Damn it.

«Fool's Act's level goes up by 1!»

"I know you have powers, my Beetle Knight." Well that's formal. I guess it does fit our apparent theme. Which I'm totally spoiling right now. "Please, just sit, rest. No talking. You suck at the talking thing right now." Okay, much less formal there. Still, her soft tone takes the edge off. Or rather, redirects it towards Armsmaster. "I can't believe your nerve, trying to have this discussion while Knight is in this state. The state of paranormal science is a joke. There is a tiny island of things we know, surrounded by the shallow waters of what we think we know, floating in a vast sea of ignorance." That sounds familiar. What should have been a sage nod at her words turns into more of a drunken loll. "How many parahumans have brains that you can't scan for one reason or another? I hear Weld is made of solid metal. How does that look to your machines? Whether you see it or not, Beetle Knight has enormous potential. There a plenty of parahumans whose powers take time to grow. Dauntless, Victor, you and every other tinker that ever was. While your machines may not have found a corona pollentia, Beetle Knight is a true hero and my partner."

«Poison Resistance's level goes up by 1!»

"Whashee shed." I appreciate the thought, and the lack of stabbing (that shit hurt enough the first time), but I've got other powers. Which one would prove it best? My skills aren't exactly flashy, so they're out. «Dragon's Scales» would be good enough if I'd already learned it. Wait. I can make things appear out of thin air. "«Inbentordy»" Nothing happens. Maybe if I'm doing something stupid it can be pronounced correctly. "«Imbide Cogblogger»" All I'm getting is weird looks. Okay, I guess verbal components are out until I stop blurting out random slurry nonsense. At least I didn't blow that secret. And that leave me with… "Laytee Bhugg, forg me!" I swear, «Fool's Act» wants me hurt.

«Fool's Act's level goes up by 1!»

Taylor shuffles away from me. What does she think I said? "Knight, forgive me." What? "Clockblocker, will you please give Beetle Knight a _hand_?" Oh. Actually, that's a good idea. I'm not exactly in control here. Let her handle things while I'm out of time. I don't even try to move out of the way.

The heroes vanish, replaced by a generic PRT agent, and Taylor is suddenly on my other side.

«A skill has been created through a special action.»  
«By surviving a time-altering effect, [Time Resistance], has been created.»  
«Time Resistance (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%»  
«The user resists time distortions. 3% reduction in involuntary time-related effects.»  
« _Bullshit!_ » Bullshit is right. How does that even work?

"Are you okay, Knight?" I take a moment to take stock. «HP: 2,945/2,945» «MP: 4,520/4,520» The only thing out of place is the sticker on my shirt, proudly proclaiming 'Clockblocked!'. I kinda wish he'd taken a moment to sign it.

«Poison Resistance's level goes up by 1!»

I give the smallest nod I can manage. It's still dopily huge. "Ahm ohgay."

"That's good. I asked for a few days to think things over. Once you're feeling better we can come back and make a better impression. Agent Gregg here will be giving dropping us off at Kidder and Durance."

That's good. I don't want to think what trouble I'd get us into walking across town. Agent Gregg leads us down to a cavernous concrete motorpool. I can't believe they think all those white panel vans are inconspicuous. Thankfully, he loads us into a far more non-descript grey sedan. It takes two tries to get my horns in the car. I don't know if I could have done it wearing the «Stag Beetle Augment».

The ride is mostly silent, which works fine for me. No talking is for the best right now. I tip over sideways onto Taylor's lap going through a particularly sharp turn and barely stop myself from making things worse by trying to get back up. Who knows how badly «Fool's Act» would mess _that_ up? There's an awkward moment when she places a firm hand on my shoulder, but then she grabs my head and tilts it so the horns aren't jabbing anywhere. I'll have to thank her for not commenting later. From the time we left the waiting room to the time the car stops, I earn another «+4 Poison Resistance».

We exit the car at a run-down park. The wooden fence is rotten through under peeling paint. Weeds have grown high enough to tie down the swings. Trash and worse fills the sandbox. I used to play here. Just another example of how far this city has fallen.

Taylor waves off the driver and we begin the short walk home through a few secluded service lanes. The park itself may be abandoned, but it's still a bit open to risk changing. And I can't exactly access my inventory. We both «Stealth» to try and avoid notice. Thank God I know I can do that silently now.

Now that it's just the two of us, the silence is stifling. It doesn't help that I can't exactly read Taylor's face behind Lady Bug's mask. "Aye'm zarree."

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have had Clockblocker freeze you without asking."

"Wuz gud kall. Ahm knawt upta talgging." I can't wait for this to wear off.

She's not done with it. "Still, it was a betrayal. Can you forgive me?"

"Fergive? Fug no." «Fool's Act» enforces a perilous pause. "Eym thangin ewe. Plz douit agn. Ef ya halvta. Nawt fer no re zin."

«Relationship with Taylor Hebert has increased.»

"Thank you." After a heavy pause she added, "What Armsmaster said, it was complete bullshit, you know. You stood up to Lung, plus your power grows over time. You're going to be an awesome hero some day and he'll eat his words."

Just keeping my mouth shut isn't enough to thwart the drugs, it seems. I trip over my feet hugging her and we bounce off a familiar fence. "Hay! Iz ma playse!"

"Doesn't look like anyone is awake." How does she know that? "Give me a bit and I'll get bugs inside to check." Right. That's going to take some getting used to. And privacy rules. "Do you need help getting inside? In your state, they'll think you're drunk if you get caught."

«00:04:29» left on the countdown. I can just wait it out. "Ishz nod neeshifsherry. Dwrugs faydin. Boud fibe minuds left. Godda kowndown timah."

"You've got a countdown timer?" I'm getting used to hearing that incredulous tone whenever we discuss my powers. "Bullshit powers. Well that's a relief. No one is up."

The only window on this side of the house is covered by a bush we keep forgetting to trim back. There's a little bench on the back wall, just under the window of my room. There's a small flowerbed across from it that I've been maintaining for the last few years, if only to have an excuse to keep the bench. Haven't really made practical use of it, but I've been able to test climbing into and out of the house this way. I'm not even going to try just yet. I take a seat, heavily. «-4 HP» Really?

"Will you be okay from here?" Lady Bug whispers, her voice carrying a little more than I'm comfortable with. I give her another wild nod.

«Fool's Act's level goes up by 1!»  
«You are no longer drugged!»  
«Poison Resistance's level goes up by 1!»

Damn it. Couldn't just do that two seconds sooner? "I'm okay now. «Inventory». Here's your bag." A few few quick gestures and the helmet vanishes. Air, sweet fresh… okay, stinky polluted air. It's amazing how freeing it is to be out of the mask.

"Debrief after school tomorrow?" Taylor's hunching by the bush. If she doesn't want Lady Bug and James Barron connected, she really should just change back. "I got a quest for us to make or join a team. We'll need to discuss that."

«New Quest Alert: Join a Team!»  
«Join a team or form one of your own.»  
«Goal time: 70 hours»  
«Reward: 7500 XP, Increased relationship with new teammates»  
«Failure: Loss of training opportunities»  
«Accept?»  
«Yes» «No»

"So I see." I make the dismissal motions extra obvious. Not sure what needs to be discussed. Go back tomorrow, show off my inventory, join the Wards. Tada! Well, if she wants to talk it over, I might as well humor her. But we're getting the security of a team ASAP.

Taylor nods and slips out the back gate. I wait a moment before climbing up on the bench. Popping the window open and clambering through is much easier than I recall. Must be the increased physical stats. I'm, what, three, four times stronger than I was last time I tried this?

"Aren't we in trouble?" Fucking Andy. He must have been waiting.

But I'm actually prepared for this. One good thing about not being able to talk? More time to think. "Shh. Dude, have I got a story to tell. But you've got to promise to keep your mouth shut."


	30. James's Character Sheet - Arc 3

End of Arc 3 character sheet for James Barron was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **James Barron  
Novice Hero  
Level 24  
HP: 2945/2945  
MP: 4520/4520**

Attributes:  
Str: 27  
Agi: 39  
Vit: 39  
Int: 39  
Wis: 15  
Luck: 6  
Unspent Points: 45

Skills:  
A Gamer's Body (Passive) Lvl MAX

Grants the user a body like a game character.  
Health and general soundness of body are reflected as HP.  
Powers and special efforts use MP.  
Sleeping restores all HP/MP and relieves all status effects.

 **A Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lvl MAX**  
Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through.  
Allows peaceful state of mind.  
Immunity to psychological status effects.

 **Blunt Weapon Mastery (Passive) Lvl 6**  
Allows the user to freely handle blunt weapons.  
10% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons.  
5% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.

 **Chinese (Passive) Lvl 2**  
Allows the user to read, write, speak, and understand Mandarin, Cantonese, and many other sub-dialects.  
At this level, the user has a pre-schooler's comprehension and will suffer misunderstandings between the various dialects.  
 _Zhōngguó shì dìqiú shàng zuì chángyòng de yǔyán de kǒuyǔ._

 **Craft (Active) Lvl 1**  
A skill to make something.  
Crafted objects become better as mastery level rises.  
Chance to fail when crafting: 50%

 **Detect Enemies (Passive) Lvl 1**  
A skill to detect hidden enemies.  
1% increase in chance of spotting a hidden enemy.

 **Dodge (Sustained) Lvl 11 / 100 MP per minute**  
A dedicated action to avoid an attack.  
+110% to AGI while dodging.

 **Elemental Resistance (Passive) Lvl 4**  
The body's durability increases and you take less damage. 7% decrease in damage taken from fire, ice, acid, and electrical attacks.  
 _If you can't stand the heat, don't tickle the dragon._

 **Finishing Blow (Active) Lvl 5**  
Allows the user to strike an incapacitated target for bonus damage.  
125% increase in critical rate.  
500% increase in attack damage.  
Can only be used on prone opponents.

 **Fool's Act (Active) Lvl 10 / 50 MP**  
Words or actions that make the enemy doubt the mental state of the user. It may confuse the target.  
Has a chance to confuse the target for 4 seconds. Willpower negates.  
 _Now you have a skill for it._

 **Gambling (Passive) Lvl 1**  
Knowledge of games of chance and stratagems for success. +1% LUK  
 _Lucky in cards..._

 **Grounding Strike (Active) Lvl 4 / 25 MP**  
Knocks the target out of the air. 60% increase in attack damage per foot to ground.  
 _...and hard!_

 **ID Create (Active) Lvl 3**  
Used to create instant dungeons.  
Stronger instant dungeons can be created according to level.  
Dungeons available:  
Empty  
Zombie»Ghost  
Dragon Yakuza

 **ID Escape (Active) Lvl 3**  
Used to exit instant dungeons.  
Higher levels can be used to escape more powerful barriers.

 **Jeet Kune Do (Passive) Lvl 17**  
A hybrid martial art with a focus on real-world combat and interrupting the opponent's attacks.  
Passively increases speed and damage of unarmed attacks by 170%  
Passively grants a 17% chance to disrupt the opponent's next attack within a second on a successful hit.  
 _When you're talking about fighting, as it is, with no rules, well then, baby you'd better train every part of your body!_

 **Knife Mastery (Passive) Lvl 6  
Knife Throwing (Passive) Lvl 1  
Light Armor Mastery (Passive) Lvl 9  
Observe (Active) Lvl 7  
Physical Resistance (Passive) Lvl 8**

Poison Resistance (Passive) Lvl 13

The body's ability to metabolize toxins increases. 14% decrease in the duration or efficacy of poison effects.  
 _I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder._

 **Power Strike (Active) Lvl 15  
Rising Strike (Active) Lvl 1  
Singing (Passive) Lvl 1  
Sense Danger (Passive) Lvl 5  
Stealth (Passive) Lvl 7**

 **Time Resistance (Passive) Level 1**  
The user resists time distortions. 3% reduction in involuntary time-related effects.  
 _Bullshit!_

 **Zombie's Hide (Sustained) Level 15 / 30 MP**  
A magic to grant the user skin like a zombie.  
Blocks 7.5% of physical, electrical, cold, and acid damage.  
Reduces likelihood of infection by disease or poison by 15%  
20 Additional MP used per minute.  
 _Grr. Argh.  
_  
 **PRT Rating: Civilian, deluded**

Author's Note: Still filling in the blanks on the character sheet, but the levels and stated effects are all accurate. Next chapter shouldn't take so long, with the holidays out of the way. Sorry for the delay behind SB, it's been a hell of a week.


	31. Guild Invites 4-3

**Guild Invites 4.3**

Announcing that I could have died cast a pall over the conversation that was broken by Clockblocker. "I'd just like to say for all of us that we're really glad you didn't die. Now, inquiring minds want to know, how did you take down Lung?"

I got to tell the story again for the fifth time that evening: followed the ABB goons, heard Lung was going to kill kids, took him down with spider venom and hand-to-hand, met the Undersiders, then Lung round two, and wrapped up with Armsmaster accidentally sedating James. While my story felt rehearsed to me, both Vista and Clockblocker hung on my every word. During the story I got popups informing me that Clockblocker and Vista now considered me to be a 'Peer' and that I was now 'Friendly' with the Wards ENE. I also picked up a new skill although I wasn't too thrilled about what it said about me.

«A skill has been created by repeated action.»  
«Through continuous use of lies and half-truths [Bluff] has been created.»  
«Bluff (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 54.1%»  
«You know how to lie and shade the truth.»  
«+3% bonus on all bluff rolls.»  
« _Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!_ »

"His halberd malfunctioned?" Clockblocker shook his head. "He's got to be pissed about that."

"So, are you joining the Wards?" Vista sounded way too eager. "It would be great to have another girl on the team."

"I don't know." I'd been worried about teen drama and adult oversight, but Clockblocker and Vista were both friendly, and Miss Militia had made some good points. However, I was still concerned that James would be exploited for his power. "I'll have to talk it over with my partner." Hopefully that would be soon. Two men had joined James in his room. One was obviously Armsmaster because I seriously doubted there was another man wandering around the PRT building in power armor. The other was likely a doctor.

"Partner?" asked Clockblocker loading up the word with extra meaning. "So are you two an item then?"

"What? No!" Ouch, perhaps too strong a denial. Fortunately James wasn't around to hear that. "We're partners in fighting crime, not anything else. However, I am worried about him."

Miss Militia cleared her throat. "Perhaps we should move this discussion down to the waiting area. Beetle Knight is being seen now."

How had she known that? I had just found out via my bugs, and no one had told her. Did she have some kind of Thinker power? I hadn't seen her consult any kind of phone or radio. Then I noticed a barely visible earpiece in her left ear. That would explain it. "Yes, I'd like that."

Miss Militia led us back the way we came. I followed along behind her, toting my bat. I wasn't in too big a hurry. The doctor had examined James, but hadn't treated him yet. In fact the doctor seemed to be having some kind of discussion with Armsmaster.

"Who did your costume?" asked Vista. "It looks professionally done. Most new capes just throw something together."

"I did some of the work myself. It's spidersilk, very tough and flame resistant." Which had turned out to be a really good feature to have. "However, the design work was done by Parian." It was actually part of my agreement with Parian that I'd credit her with the design of my costume whenever I was asked. I wondered if she would be upset that I'd lost the cape and skirt-nets. They really made the costume work.

"Oh, you've met Parian?" asked Clockblocker. "She's a doll."

Vista punched him in the arm again, which was made more interesting because she wasn't standing next to him. Her arm seemed to stretch and deform like taffy to punch him. I knew it was really her power warping space. So cool.

"Ow. Did you have to punch me again? There was nothing offensive about that one."

"Yes, I did. That one was just lame, and you make it every time Parian's name comes up in conversation."

"Well, you know clocks repeat themselves – "

"Twice a day," Vista finished in an unimpressed tone. "I heard that one twelve hours ago."

It was amazing listening to them. I could tell there was no real anger in Vista's punching Clockblocker's arm. They obviously had a great rapport going. It reminded me of old Emma, when we'd used to laugh and clown around. James had become a friend, and I'd trust him with my life. In fact, I had trusted him with my life, but we didn't have this kind of relationship, at least not yet… And apparently the doctor was doing something to James now. I wasn't entirely sure what. I wasn't allowing my bugs to crawl all over every surface in that room, because it was a medical treatment room, and bugs aren't exactly sterile. At best guess they'd injected him with something, and he'd be waking up soon.

The waiting room was surprisingly comfortable if lacking in the usual months old magazines to read. Not that I'd want to read while I had Miss Militia, Clockblocker and Vista to talk with. "So, do the Wards usually stay up all night watching the monitors?"

"On a school night?" Clockblocker asked incredulously. "Are you kidding? That would interfere with our beauty sleep. They didn't even wake us when the calls started coming in about a fight with Lung. It was only after you and Beetle Knight were en route to the PRT building that MM rousted us from bed. Not that I'm complaining. I'm glad to meet you."

"Me, too!" agreed Vista.

"I really think you should meet all the Wards, Lady Bug," added Miss Militia. "Even if you decide not to join the Wards, it's a good thing for you to meet them. It will go a long way to preventing any misunderstandings if your paths cross theirs in the middle of a fight. That's why I woke these two up."

That made sense. "I'll need to discuss it with Beetle Knight, but I'm sure he'll be glad to meet Vista and Clockblocker tonight and agree to meet with the others whenever we can set up a time.

"Good. Could I offer you both PRT phones? I promise there are no tracking devices on them. You can even power them down when you're not using them. They're to help protect your civilian identities. They'll give you a secure and protected way to contact us directly. So we can set up a meeting with the rest of the Wards, and if you ever run into another situation like you did with Lung, you could call us and let us know."

I hesitated over accepting this offer. I absolutely trusted Miss Militia, but didn't entirely trust the PRT. Especially since cell phones innately had to be trackable. Phone calls had to get routed to the appropriate cell phone tower and passed seamlessly among multiple towers for people driving or otherwise moving about. However, I didn't have to take the phone home with me. I could stash it somewhere. Bug control excelled at finding good hiding places. "Yes. I'll take the phone. Thank you."

"Good. I'll make the arrangements." Miss Militia stepped a bit away from the rest of us, pulled out a phone and made a call.

My bugs noticed that James was on the move. He was still unconscious, but they rolled his bed down a hall to another room. What exactly was going on? He was closer to the waiting room than he was before, just two rooms away. Armsmaster and the man I've tentatively identified as a doctor lifted him out of his bed and onto another bed that then moved on its own. I'm sure I could figure it out if I spread out my bugs further, but that would compromise the sterility of a medical room. That wasn't a cost I was willing to pay. Meanwhile, my bugs had spread throughout the PRT building. I now had a pretty good mental map of the entire building. There were seventy-eight people up and awake. For the most part they seemed to be doing various kinds of office work. However, I could also identify the cook in the canteen, twelve people engaged in janitorial duties, three people on a firing range, one working out, and a couple engaged in some kind of intimate act in one of the storerooms – I didn't observe them closely. I'd also found Lung down in the basement. I would _not_ be telling the PRT that I'd infiltrated their secure holding cells with spy bugs.

"So, are you going to 'bug out' as soon as Beetle Knight is up and about?"

I ignored the bad pun. I had to agree with Vista some of Clockblocker's jokes were a little lame. "That's the plan. I'd like to stay and chat, but we're both overdue in our civilian identities."

Vista frowned. "Would you like to call home, um whoever, is waiting on you? We could arrange a secure line."

I shook my head. "No, Beetle Knight shouldn't be much longer." Since I could tell he was moving about. "That's what Miss Militia said, right? Do you think someone could give us a ride to somewhere near our neighborhood?"

Clockblocker nodded, but it was Miss Militia who responded. "I will have it arranged as well."

What was going on with James? Armsmaster grabbed him by his foot and pulled him out. James thrashed and flailed about before clinging to Armsmaster. James was not moving anything like normal as they headed our way. I really wanted to turn around to face the door where they would enter, but I didn't want to reveal my «Combat Mapping» ability.

The door suddenly slammed open, and James staggered through like he was drunk off his ass. His beetle knight helmet matched with civilian clothes looked even more foolish in good lighting. "Bugg! I mished yoo!" Then he faceplanted right into my breastplate.

Awkward, and everyone was looking at us. I froze there for a moment unable to believe what just happened. His face was resting on my chest. Urp, not just resting, he was nuzzling my fake breasts. Granted, there were layers of cloth and padding between his face and me, but beyond embarrassing. He was obviously high as a kite. I patted him on the back before gently but firmly pushing him back upright. "Easy there, Knight. You're still a little woozy from the drugs. Take a seat." I carefully guided him to the nearest seat and plopped down beside him.

Even sitting down James wasn't completely balanced. He had also apparently caught on that we had company. "Mish Miller- Milita… Miss Mi-li-ti-a. I uszed ta dream aboud herrr. Shtill do."

Clockblocker burst out laughing which at least distracted James from staring at Miss Militia's chest. "Cockblock! Er, Clockblock! Er. Allwaize wandameat yoo. Gread shensha humah, unlike Armsmater 'ere." James made a wild gesture in Armsmaster's general direction. "Ee uszd ta be mah fav'rit. Wannid the unnies wit his lowgo, bud cout ownlee fine on panties. Wise dat?"

No, no, no! They were not talking about Armsmaster panties. To make it worse I used to own a pair of panties with Armsmaster's emblem on the front of them.

Clockblocker burst out with a loud guffaw before replying, "Marketing knows how often he gets his panties in a twist, so they made more for him."

Miss Militia and Vista both snickered while James giggled like a girl. I knew they were laughing with James instead of at him, but I didn't find it at all funny. I laid a hand on James's shoulder and spoke slowly and clearly trying to get through to him. "Knight, for your own sake, just stop talking. You'll thank me tomorrow." I turned a bit in my seat to look at Armsmaster. His mouth was set in a harsh line. He didn't think it was funny either. "It's the drugs. He's not normally like this."

"Normal." Armsmaster frowned. "That's a good word, because that's what 'Beetle Knight' is. I hate to be the one to break this to you Lady Bug, but we get a dozen kids just like him every month. Kids convinced they have superspeed because they got off their lazy ass and ran a mile, or that they're a brute because they got in a fight and won. This power he claims to have? Slowly improving? I've heard that before, many times. You have the potential to be a great hero, but you need to cut him loose. He's just a delusional fanboy."

James kept babbling on, but my attention was on Armsmaster. "No, he's not! His powers make mine look weak."

"He'll get you killed!" Armsmaster barked back at me. "It's admirable that you want to keep your… friend around, but he doesn't. Have. Powers."

"Whut?" asked James cluelessly as he turned to face Armsmaster as well.

"I understand wanting to have powers." Armsmaster's tone would be patronizing to a three-year old. "Every teen wants to be special. Your talent for martial arts is… impressive, but it isn't a power." He shifted into lecture mode. "Every human who has the potential to develop powers has an extra brain lobe, the corona pollentia. While the exact location and shape varies, widely, it is an additional structure in the brain not present in normal humans. It's not too hard to recognize when there's a significant variance from the norm. And your brain is textbook. You don't have powers, you _can't_ develop powers."

That was just so wrong that I didn't know where to begin. James had less self-control. He pumped his fist in the air. "I haz da powah! Tha-lady Bug, forg me!"

I turned my glare to James as he'd almost said my real name, but I couldn't be angry at him. It wasn't his fault that he was drugged or that Armsmaster was a dick. "I know you have powers, my Beetle Knight. Please, just sit, rest. No talking. You suck at the talking thing right now." I focused my ire back on the person who deserved it. "I can't believe your nerve, trying to have this discussion while Knight is in this state. The state of paranormal science is a joke. There is a tiny island of things we know, surrounded by the shallow waters of what we think we know, floating in a vast ocean of ignorance." Those words weren't mine. I'd paraphrased something I'd read. "How many parahumans have brains that you can't scan for one reason or another? I hear Weld is made of solid metal. How does that look to your machines? Whether you see it or not, Beetle Knight has enormous potential. There are plenty of parahumans whose powers take time to grow. Dauntless, Victor, you and every other tinker that ever was. While your machines may not have found a corona pollentia, Beetle Knight is a true hero and my partner."

«Your relationship with James Barron has increased!»  
«Your relationship with Armsmaster has decreased!»

James nodded his head up and down like a crazed bobblehead doll. "Whash see shed. «Inbentordy»" Nothing happened. "«Imbide Cogblogger»."

What? No, that was supposed to be secret, but thankfully Clockblocker didn't appear to be staring at a party invite window.

"Laytee Bhugg, forg me!"

Was he cursing and saying 'fuck me' or was that supposed to be 'fork me'? It didn't really matter. We'd agreed that James's inventory and especially party invites were supposed to be secrets. Not to mention my name. James had almost said my real name. It really wasn't his fault, but I needed to do something quickly. This was spinning out of control. We needed time to retreat, regroup, and reassess. How? And there standing in front of me was the solution. "Beetle Knight, I'm sorry." I scooted a bit over so I wasn't touching James. "Clockblocker, would you please give Beetle Knight a hand?"

Clockblocker reached out and froze James in time. "There. Done." He reached into a belt, pulled out a little sticker and stuck it to James. "He's clockblocked."

Vista gave a little snort. "Did you have to use the sticker?"

I ignored their little byplay. "Thank you." From what I knew of James's sense of humor he'd probably find the sticker funny. James looked so wrong sitting beside me frozen in time. Hopefully he wouldn't hate me for that. I directed my ire toward Armsmaster. "First you shoot him full of drugs, then you accuse him of having no powers. Even if that were true – and it's not – that wasn't the way to tell him."

Armsmaster didn't look at all regretful. "I understand that you are angry at me now, but you'll thank me later. If you keep involving him in cape matters people will be hurt and the blood will be on your hands."

"Whatever." I felt my bugs growing agitated and rushing towards me as they reacted to my anger. I deliberately pushed them back out. I turned to the only reasonable adult present. "Miss Militia, would you please arrange that ride you offered us. I'd like to take my partner and go home now."

"Of course, Lady Bug. The offer to come in and meet the other Wards is still open." Her tone was crisp and professional. "Vista, Clockblocker, you both have school in the morning. You should head back to the Ward's room."

Vista offered me a weak smile. "It was good meeting you Lady Bug. You know, even if Beetle Knight doesn't have powers, I'm sure he'd make a great PRT agent. The PRT is always looking for regular people brave enough to go up against capes. Even if he's underage they sometimes offer internships to talented individuals."

I smiled at Vista, which she couldn't see so I added a polite nod. "I'll keep that in mind." She really seemed to be trying to make a positive out of things.

Clockblocker shrugged. "Shit happens. When you're a cape, weird shit happens. Welcome to the club. Do you have a PHO account?"

"Yeah, I managed to grab Lady_Bug with an underscore between them. I check it sometimes."

"I got my own name, too. Clockblocker, all one word. Give me PM or a chat."

I smiled behind my mask, but he didn't get the nod. "I'll do that."

Vista and Clockblocker left. Miss Militia had stepped back and was talking on her phone. Armsmaster stood looking at me with crossed arms. "We still need to discuss how Lung's capture will be credited. You should claim sole credit. Beetle Knight is just a normal kid. He doesn't need the attention. It will put his life at unnecessary risk."

I stared at him in disbelief. He just didn't give up did he? "Credit both of us." I wasn't going to deny Beetle Knight his share.

"You do remember what I told you about Bakuda and Oni Lee?"

Ah yes, retribution. Somehow I didn't think that the ABB would care that Beetle Knight didn't get official credit. Too many goons saw him fighting Lung and ran away. Not to mention we'd had an audience. "Yes. I remember. Credit both of us." We took down Lung. We deserved the credit.

"Very well. I'll sit on your names for forty-eight hours, just to give you a chance to reconsider. After that they'll be released to the press." He was ramrod straight. He probably had a back-up halberd shoved up his ass.

Why did he ask me if he wasn't going to release our names? "Fine. Can we go now?"

Armsmaster gestured to James. "You'll have to wait for him to unfreeze, and you're in a restricted part of the building, so I cannot leave you unescorted."

Miss Militia stepped forward. "Armsmaster, I'll be glad to take it from here."

Armsmaster shrugged. "Very well, I have reports to write up. See if you can talk some sense into her."

If there had ever been a chance of me joining the Wards, Armsmaster had pretty much flushed it down the toilet tonight. There was no way that I'd ever place myself in a position where that man could give me orders. I stared at him in silence until he walked away leaving me alone with Miss Militia. "Thank you for your hospitality, Miss Militia. I know he's a great hero, but…"

She nodded her head. "I understand. He's a warrior and war makes you hard. I've seen him put his life on the line time and time again. He also has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. Many see him as Hero's successor as the next greatest tinker. I know he came down hard on you and Beetle Knight, but he was doing it to protect you both."

Personally I thought Dragon overshadowed him as a tinker by a huge amount, but I could respect him as a hero without forgiving his actions this night. I knew about bullies. Armsmaster was being a bully, but perhaps his reasons weren't all bad. "I'm sure he is."

Before I could think of anything else to say, a balding man in a suit and blue tie entered the room. He was in his middle years, but looked quite fit. Miss Militia introduced him as Agent Gregg. At least he wasn't Agent Orange. He had a phone for me. Miss Militia apologized, but under the circumstances she'd thought it better to only give me a phone. She encouraged me to call and set up a meeting with the Wards, no strings attached, or to call for PRT support in emergencies. She took her leave and a little bit later James unfroze.

In his drugged state James didn't seem to mind being clockblocked. He staggered around like a drunk, but he willingly followed me and Agent Gregg to an unmarked car. On the first sharp turn he tumbled over and fell into my lap. It was a little bit embarrassing, but James was so drunk that I was more concerned with him ripping up the car upholstery with those ridiculous horns on his helmet. I firmly pushed him back down by the shoulder. "Just stay there." James protested but stayed put. I kept one hand on his helmet and hoped that the drugs didn't make him throw up in his helmet and my lap. "If you feel queasy, let me know."

I watched through the window as the city rolled past. It was after four in the morning now. I was going to be so dead when I got home. My father must be worried sick. I had the PRT phone now, but no way was I going to call him on it. I didn't want Agent Gregg listening in on that conversation. I also didn't know what to say. It wasn't like I could tell him I was a cape over the phone. What would I tell him when I got home? The truth? He couldn't handle the truth. Movie quote didn't help.

I still hadn't come up with an explanation that would work when we arrived at a small park not too distant from my home and Winslow. It should be in walking distance to James's house as well. The park had seen better days. The wooden fence was rotting, and the paint was peeling. Weeds grew beneath the rusted swings where once children's feet had gouged ruts in the dirt. I used to play here. I wonder if this place was where I'd first met James. It seemed like a good possibility. I only had fuzzy memories of those happy years, and even the happy memories were tarnished because most of them featured Emma.

After waving good-bye to Agent Gregg we headed back. I was about to suggest changing when I realized that I had a problem. My clothes were in my backpack, and my backpack was in James's inventory. That meant they were inaccessible until James sobered up. If worse came to worse we could hide out in an illusion barrier while James slept off the drugs, but we might as well walk home first. Actually, we snuck home, assisted by «Stealth» and using my bugs to keep an eye out for any people. We took the back alleys to avoid notice, which mostly worked. We did get barked at more than once by some dogs, so obviously our stealth skills needed more practice.

"Aye'm zarree." James suddenly announced.

I was taken aback by his sudden proclamation. What did he have to be sorry about? "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have had Clockblocker freeze you without asking."

"Wuz gud kall. Ahm knawt upta talgging."

It took me a moment to parse through what he'd said. I didn't think it was a good call. "Still, it was a betrayal. Can you forgive me?"

"Fergive? Fug no." His words were garbled, but his intent was clear.

I felt my stomach drop out. I didn't really deserve forgiveness, but –

"Eym thangin ewe. Plz douit agn. Ef ya halvta. Nawt fer no re zin."

"Thank you." I felt my eyes getting wet behind my mask, which was a pain because I couldn't even wipe them. "What Armsmaster said, it was complete bullshit, you know. You stood up to Lung, plus your power grows over time. You're going to be an awesome hero some day and he'll eat his words."

«Relationship with James Barron has increased.»

Even with the warning from James's power I was not expecting the sudden drunken hug. I awkwardly returned it. He certainly seemed to be a happy drunk. I managed to keep us both upright even when he knocked us into a fence.

"Hay! Iz ma playse!"

Really? This was where James lived? It seemed like a nice house for our area, slightly larger than most and well-maintained. We actually didn't live that far apart. I couldn't see any lights on, and the bugs inside his home felt like they were alone. So probably everyone was asleep. Why weren't his parents staying up for him? I'm sure my father was waiting up for me. "Doesn't look like anyone is awake. Give me a bit and I'll get bugs inside to check… Do you need help getting inside? In your state, they'll think you're drunk if you get caught." And my costume. What was I going to do about my costume?

"Ishz nod neeshifsherry. Dwrugs faydin. Boud fibe minuds left. Godda kowndown timah."

"You've got a countdown timer? Bullshit powers. Well that's a relief." No trying to sneak inside my house as Lady Bug. I just had to wait a few more minutes. "No one is up."

James plopped down on a little bench under the lone window on this side of the house. This was actually a good place to wait. A large bush blocked out what little light came from a distant streetlight leaving us in shadow. I moved over next to James. "Will you be okay from here?" I really wasn't sure what to make of the fact that no one stayed up for him.

James gave me another bobblehead nod and then broke into his normal voice. "I'm okay now. «Inventory». Here's your bag."

I took my bag from him and slipped my bat into it. Meanwhile James made a few swipes at the air, and his helmet was gone. Since his helmet was his entire costume, he was back in his civvies. I should really get going. It wouldn't do for Lady Bug to get caught near here. "Debrief after school tomorrow? I got a quest for us to make or join a team. We'll need to discuss that." Joining the Wards was obviously not an option.

"So I see." James punched his fingers at an invisible screen.

I guess he received the same quest? I gave him a wave, a nod and a quiet, "See you later," before sneaking out the back gate. I found myself a dark nook in the alleyway and quickly changed back into my own civvies. I was tired, grungy, and I'm pretty sure my hair was singed. I also had to face the music. I snuck back out of the alley and jogged home. The closer my impending confrontation with my father became, the more I wanted to postpone it. Two blocks away I knew from my bugs that there was a grown man in my father's bedroom watching television. So my father was definitely awake and waiting up for me. I stalled for a tiny bit by stashing the PRT phone in an abandoned house, but that only delayed the inevitable. When I reached my street, I noticed that all the lights in the house were on. I shifted to a walk. I still hadn't worked out what to tell him other than the truth.

Ever since mom died, things had been awkward between me and my father. He'd mostly ignored me until the locker. After that he'd treated me like delicate china. If I'd only been a little late, if I'd gotten home by midnight, then I probably could have lied my ass off: lost track of time, had to dodge the ABB, bus wasn't running and had to walk, or something like that. None of those would hold up after dragging my ass home just before dawn. My father would assume the worst: alcohol, drugs, or sex. All of which would get me grounded even worse than telling the truth.

Not that I would do drugs. I didn't need the stay-off-drugs chapters in health class. I'd seen enough kids at Winslow hooked on the Merchant's shit to ever want anything to do with drugs. The ones dealing the drugs looked even worse. Sex – was a nonissue for me. I only knew one boy that I was on speaking terms with, and James was my partner. We were friends. Although... he had gotten rather intimate with my fake chest. While that was still embarrassing, he'd also said that he'd missed me. Was it possible James liked me? No, I'd seen how he'd acted around Tattletale. She hadn't even really needed to do anything, just pose in spandex and she'd led him around by his dick. The boobs on my armor were fake and he'd been high. I knew exactly what I looked like without the padded bust and hips. Vista probably had more of a chest than I did.

Alcohol, well my father couldn't complain too much since he usually drank a couple of beers a night. Could I pretend to have been at a party and gotten drunk? It would be a whopper of a lie. The most I'd ever had to drink had been an accidental sip of a beer my father had left out. I'd hated the taste, but I wasn't opposed to alcohol like I was drugs. I still wasn't that in favor of getting falling down drunk. Why anyone would want to make a fool of themselves the way James had was beyond me. I'd have to invent details. I never got invited to the cool parties. Plus, I doubted that I could convincingly fake a hangover. Not to mention that it was pointless. I'd still be grounded forever, and he wouldn't trust my new friends which included James. Since I was going to be in trouble no matter what, I might as well be punished for what I actually did. I'd put off telling my father long enough… and my own door was in front of me. Truth and consequences time. I unlocked the door and stepped inside.

My father rushed down the stairs. He was dressed for work in what was practically his uniform: jeans, blue denim shirt, and steel-toed boots. He hadn't been a regular dockworker for years, but he still dressed as one of the boys even though he'd moved up to being a union spokesperson. He looked older than usual, and that was saying something. He was a long and lanky man with a weak chin, large eyes exaggerated by his thick glasses, and thinning hair. On a good day he looked stressed, confused and defeated. As he charged down the stairs his hair was tangled mess and his eyes were bloodshot eyes had a desperate look to them. "Taylor! You're safe."

He startled me by sweeping me into a hug. I had to fight off suggestions from my new «Aikido» skill that I use the same throw I'd used against Lung to avoid the 'grapple attempt' and throw my father into the wall. Instead I stood there and braced myself as he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me tight. "Dad. Need to breathe."

He released the hug but still left one hand on my shoulder. "Taylor Anne Hebert! I've been worried sick. Where the hell have you been? I called the police and the hospitals."

I winced. Now wouldn't that be a big fat clue to my secret identity? New cape and missing girl the same night. How long would it take the PRT or anyone else who could wrangle access to the records to find my secret identity? According to the 'unwritten rules' secret identities should be honored, but it felt like a thin shield to hide behind. At least he hadn't called the PRT – and that wasn't important now. He was looking at me expecting an answer. "I…" Even though I'd decided that I had to tell him the truth, outlandish lies flashed through my brain. "Can we sit? Maybe have some tea first?"

"Taylor… I'm disappointed in you. You're in trouble, but this covering up and hiding has to stop. I thought we were past this now." He ran a hand through his thinning hair. "Go. Sit down at the kitchen table. I'll make you some tea, but we're having this out now."

I merely nodded and sulked to the table. This was ridiculous. I'd faced down hordes of zombies, their boss, Lung twice, and even dealt with Armsmaster with his panties in a twist. I grabbed a bunch of lady bugs from the basement and brought them up close so I could make a demonstration. Meanwhile, I called in my black windows from their hiding places and set them to weaving. I needed new skirt-nets, a new cape, silken cords, and a silk rope. The skirt-nets and cords could be done relatively quickly. The rope would take longer, but I wanted it done before the next time I was out in costume. I had never stopped my constant bug practice, but taking those extra steps with my bugs helped somehow. By the time my father brought a cup of hot tea to the table I felt ready to have this conversation.

My father sat down, no cup of tea for him, just a stead gaze that demanded answers. "No more stalling. What happened?"

"Dad, the thing is… I'm a cape. I have powers." There. I finally said it. I felt like I'd just dropped a heavy weight I'd been carrying around.

"A cape? Really?"

"Yes." I made a completely unnecessary wave of my hand, and my hidden lady bugs flew out and spelled, 'I Control Bugs' over my head.

Dad startled and jumped up and back. In doing so he knocked over his chair and fell to the kitchen floor in a clatter. "Taylor! What? When? I can't…" His eyes darted to my bugs still in formation over my head. "No, I believe it. I just –" He suddenly halted midstream. He bent over and picked up his chair and sat back down. "Explain. Now."

I dispersed my ladybugs and sent them to the underside of the kitchen table. I knew where the story started. It just wasn't something I liked to talk about. "Do you know about trigger events?"

"Not really. Something extremely bad happens and then poof there are powers…" My father gasped. "The locker?"

"Yes." Please let it go at that.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"When?" Damn, damn, damn. I'd have to talk about it. "When the doctors said I had a psychotic break, they were only part right. I really was having trouble determining what was real, but that was because I was in sensory overload." I brought a handful of ladybugs back up. "I feel everything they feel: sights, sounds, smells, tastes – everything. It was like being locked in a room with a thousand TVs all blaring at me at the same time. I eventually learned to shut them out and only listen to what I want to hear, but that took time. I don't know if all the drugs they tried made things better or worse. Once I finally did understand what was happening, I was never alone with you. I wasn't going to tell the hospital staff. Then the pills they finally decided on left me sleepy all the time."

My father sighed. "I can understand that, but why not when we got home?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I was angry at everyone then. Angry at the school. Angry at Emma and her goons. Angry that it got out. Angry at you because they got off with a slap on the wrist." And because my father was ultimately a disappointment. He was a good man and he tried, but the Dockworkers union was in a downward spiral, and the less said about the ferry the better. I hadn't been surprised that the trio got off almost unpunished and the school hadn't even covered all my hospital bills. "I was still on the drugs and spent most of my time playing with my bugs, learning to use them. They became my lifeline and I started dreaming of being a hero. I knew you wouldn't like that. So… I just…" Couldn't trust him.

My father looked gut-punched. "I'm sorry, Taylor. I got what I could, but Alan pulled his lawyer shit, and the school denied, and… I'm sorry. You're worth more than those three little bitches put together."

Dad was still steamed over Emma's betrayal and that of the trio. Only Madison really got punished, and all she got was one whole week of suspension. Emma and Sophia had only received three day suspensions. It had always seemed odd to me that Madison received the worst punishment when she was the least of my tormentors, but at least now I knew why. She'd broken James's collarbone. She had been punished for hurting James, not me. By the time I was coherent enough to communicate Winslow had already settled with my father. My father had been outraged to find out the truth, and it was still a hot button for him. That was part of the reason I hadn't told him they were back to their old games again. If putting me in the hospital was only worth three days, none of the petty hard to prove stuff they were doing lately would get punished.

"I don't really care about them anymore, Dad. I'm going to be a hero and they're not worth my time." I took a deep sip of my tea which I'd barely touched. Ball was in Dad's court now.

"Right, a hero, so I assume this has something to do with you being out all night without telling me. Were you training? Oh god, please tell me you weren't anywhere near that mess with Lung tonight."

"You know about that?!"

"Jesus Christ, Taylor, you were. Yes, I know about that. It was a cape fight. I was watching TV. They interrupted the regular broadcast to tell people to stay the hell away from it. I can't believe you were there fighting Lung! With bugs! What were you thinking? Don't answer that – you obviously weren't thinking." My father brought down his fist on the table, which wasn't very sturdy and shook under the impact. He brought both his fists up and clenched them, and I could see his face actually flushing with anger. He cut loose with a string of profanity that started at awful and got worse. He stopped mid-rant, took a deep breath, and held up one finger. "I can't talk to you right now. Go to your room. Now."

I retreated to my room, slammed the door behind me, and threw myself on my bed. I hadn't expected my father to take it well, but I'd hoped for better. Through my closed door I could hear him swearing. Lung's name came up a lot, but not mine. I knew my father had a temper. I'd only rarely seen him let it loose. Now I was being treated to a full scale eruption of Mt. Danny Hebert. No, that wasn't fair. I'd seen him explode before. This wasn't the same. This was more venting, and from what I could tell more about Lung and almost 'losing me' than directed at me. That didn't make me feel any better about it.

I needed a distraction, so I turned on my radio, turned it up and sang along – got to work my «Singing» skill. I opened up my skills window to find most of the skills had leveled up over the past few hours of multitasking practicing: «Cryptography 8» and three-fourths the way to leveling again, «Combat Mapping 14», «Lingering Command 23», and «Sense Processing 20». While «Mental Control Area» hadn't leveled up yet, it was at 99.7% so shouldn't take much more. I was pleasantly surprised to find that «Clairsentience Blocking» had also leveled to 90. It had been close to leveling the last time I'd checked, but I hadn't been practicing it, or had I? I actually was maintaining walls in my head to keep back sight and hearing, and also limit tasting and smelling to a few bugs at a time. That must be enough to count as practice. Good to know. I got out my notebook and updated it on my skill and stat changes using my usual cipher.

Distracting myself with my skill practice wasn't completely effective. I still had bugs on my father. He continued to rant for a while, then took down a sheet of paper and wrote on it a bit. After a few minutes of that he put it away and headed my way. I had plenty of warning to hide my notebook, turn off my radio, and sit innocently on my bed before he knocked on my door.

"Taylor, may I come in?" He sounded much calmer now.

I took it as a good sign that he was asking instead of just barging in. "Of course."

My father opened the door and shuffled in. "Taylor, I owe you an apology. I lost my temper. I was worried sick about you, but that's no excuse."

"Okay." He was apologizing to me? "I mean, you didn't really yell at me, and I did kind of blow my curfew completely."

"You did, and you will have consequences for that, but that's not even the top of my list of questions. I can understand wanting to be a hero. I not saying that I approve. You're too young, but I can at least understand. What I don't understand is Lung. Why did you – No… Why Lung?"

I looked down. "I hadn't planned it that way. We just went out for power practice in the Ship's Graveyard. I hadn't planned to fight crime at all last night. When we did start, my plan was to start small, like some of the Merchant drug dealers, not even starting off with capes. It was just that as we were heading back the ABB was out. We had to detour to avoid some gang members, which pushed us into ABB territory, and then we almost stumbled on one of their meetings." I needed to focus. I wouldn't believe that sequence of events. Didn't matter that it was true. "Never mind that, we were just spying and overheard Lung saying he was going to kill kids. I couldn't stand back and just let the ABB kill kids. That's when we engaged Lung."

"Taylor." My father ran his hands through his hair. "Why did you think you could stop him? Getting yourself killed wouldn't help anyone."

"Dad, we did stop him. He's been captured." Couldn't he give me credit for that?

"By Armsmaster, and who is this 'we' you keep talking about?"

It annoyed me that my father seemed to believe that Armsmaster captured Lung. Was that what the media was saying? "I have a partner. His name is Beetle Knight, and we're a team. Also Armsmaster didn't help at all. He didn't show up until Lung was already down. Beetle Knight and I took him out. Together."

"I see." My father grabbed a chair and sat down in it heavily. "I'm going to need the full story."

"Alright." I didn't know what to make of my father's attitude, but he was at least listening. "I suppose it really starts a few days ago." This was going to take a while.


	32. Factions 4-1

Factions 4.1 was written by Faria Lyton and is reposted here with permission.

* * *

 **Factions 4.1**

In the end I get no sleep. Details on new capes are a hot commodity in the school yard, and Andy is a greedy little bastard. Oh well. I couldn't have grabbed more than a half hour nap and expect to wake up on time to grab a shower before school. Andy promises to not tell anyone (including the parents) I was there (out all night), not because I bribed him, but because he "didn't want people to know I'm related to a dumbass who failed to get TWO new capes' autographs". Yeah. Great kid, my younger brother.

I lose my usual shower time when Andy decides he'll go early since he's already up. 'Quick' shower or not, that gives me at least half an hour before anyone else wakes or he's out. I grab a bowl of granola («Observe» likes it better than Cheerios or Raisin Bran) and scuttle back to bed to leaf through "A Beginner's Guide to The Gamer".

It's a thick book and very dry reading, so I mostly skim. The chapter on skills confirms that I can use skills silently after level 5, but at lowered effect. Some skills fold into others, some evolve into others, some spawn new skills at max level, etc. Skills max out at level 100. Kinda already figured, but it's nice to see in black and white.

I thumb backwards to stats. Physical first, since I've been prioritizing them lately. STR is strength. Lift more, hit harder, and half the equation to moving faster and jumping higher. Visually, it results in larger muscles, within reason. AGI is agility. Flexibility, dexterity, and the other half of track and field. It gives a tighter, more defined musculature. The speed bit is a little more realistic than most games, but it makes sense. VIT is vitality. Endurance, durability, and 5 HP gained per level per point. Not retroactive. The sooner I get my VIT, the more it benefits me in the long run. I'll want to get more points in there before I level up again. According to the guide, a good score here will result in general good health and 'idealization'. At my current 39, I should have a fairly easy time keeping to a good weight, _very_ little acne, and it looks like I might just catch up with Andy on height a little.

On the subject of 39, let's see about the mental stats. INT is intelligence. Memorization, speed of thought, skills allowed, and 5 MP gained per level per point. Also not retroactive. No wonder I can throw around my skills freely. Still, more is better. WIS is wisdom. Somehow that's described as perception, quality of thoughts, learning speed, and 1% MP Regen per 10 points. I suppose 'quality of thoughts' sounds kinda similar to what people usually mean by 'wisdom'. LUK is luck. Not really a 'mental' stat, but even less a physical one. The guide states that it affects everything, but is more obvious in situations where skill and outside forces matter less. Like dice, cards, and loot. Mmmm, loot.

A few more skimmed pages brings me to a section about macros. Apparently I can create verbal shortcuts for using more than one non-contradictory skill at once or for accessing inventory functions. Which includes... saved outfits. I grab my other pair of black jeans and build a few saved 'heroic' outfits. One for each augment, in case I need to change quickly. I'll try them out later. A last second thought has me adding an athletic supporter.

Still need to replace the shirt and armor. The «Undead Shirt» and «Pauldrons» will make for a good start there. Not making those here, too much chance of being seen. And I have no clue how 'normal' my «Crafting» skill looks. For all I know there will be a spinning glow floating in front of me for thirty seconds followed by a loud ding as the parts poof into a new item. Not something to test around people. Just in case, some sewing supplies find their way into my inventory as Andy finishes his forty-five minute shower.

Of all the odd things about living with my power, morning ablutions are the most jarring. I'm not sure I actually need to brush my teeth or hair anymore. They feel and look fine despite everything. Still need to shower. Sweat and smoke are rather noticeable smells. Undressing manually, I notice something in the mirror. Abs. Those were _not_ there two days ago. I didn't really have any fat on me, but I certainly didn't have these muscles. I waste a minute or two flexing at myself before hopping into the shower. I'm resigned to dealing with a damp shirt if I toss it right on a head out early enough to skip any morning drama, but equipping it directly seems to also dry my torso instantly. That's convenient.

I'm always out the door early. It's a habit from when all of us were under the same roof. The house isn't _small_ , but it isn't meant for holding seven. I usually use the extra time to do my homework, but I've got another idea today. I duck behind the house. "«ID Create: Empty»" Silence.

The bench in the backyard has never seen so much attention. I dump out the various zombie bits and absorb the «Undead Shirt» blueprint. A moment's concentration and my hands begin moving. It's almost like folding clothes or washing dishes; it's like I've done it so many times I don't even have to think about it. Five pieces of foul leather are laid out in the rough shape of a shirt: a rib next to each shoulder, two teeth at each cuff, and one tooth by the collar. My scissors flash through the material, precision cuts made in seconds. I'm not sure I'm actually touching the needle as it sketches out neat seams, buttonholes, and hems. The bones act more like clay in my hands, teeth melting into buttons and ribs reshaping before fusing to the shoulders of the item. It's ugly. The pale leather and yellowed ivory look gross, in a murderhobo way. Before I can even complete the thought, the colors change. Oh, this is much better. It's black with stark white buttons and a bone ridge of sorts over the top of each shoulder.

«Crafting: Success!»  
«Crafting's level goes up by 1!»

«Undead Shirt»  
«Type: Underarmor; Quality: Common»  
«A tough yet thin leather shirt for wearing under armor made from parts of the undead. Provides a +3 boost to VIT while equipped. Minor Protection vs. Crushing and Slashing Damage.»

That's a keeper. Not exactly something the bards will sing about, but it's a damn good start. My saved outfits now include a shirt. Hopefully this one will last longer.

Crafting the «Undead Pauldrons» goes much the same. In a matter of minutes I've got «+2 Crafting» and a nice pair of round, bone-rimmed, black pauldrons, each decorated by a pentagram with white spikes at each point and intersection. I'm going to look so badass in this.

«Undead Pauldron»  
«Type: Medium Armor; Quality: Common»  
«Hardened leather shoulder armor made from parts of the undead. Provides a +1 boost to VIT while equipped. Moderate Protection vs. Slashing and Piercing Damage. Minor Protection vs. Crushing Damage.»

Well, I've got nothing more to make, and no more materials to make it with, so I get up, stuff everything into my inventory and take a nice peaceful jog through the Illusion Barrier. There's no traffic in here. I love it. An alleyway about two blocks from Winslow gives me a good place to retrieve my backpack and exit the barrier.

School begins like any other Monday. I'm still here early enough to do my biology homework I really should have done over the weekend before class begins. The final last semester was graded on a curve, assuming no one would get more than a hundred out of the hundred forty questions right. I got 134. Come to think of it, I think a few of the Neo-Nazis who attacked me Friday are in this class. I guess I shouldn't have laughed at them when they tried to bribe me to 'not blow the curve' this time. Oh well. I consider faking a limp, or pretending to disguise a limp I don't actually have, but it's not worth it. It _has_ been a few days.

Greg Veder is also in this class. I could be upset that the little shit didn't even try to get me out of the locker, but wouldn't expect help from him anyway. He didn't help Taylor either, and if you took him at his word you'd think they're dating. He's got less spine than the worms we dissected last week. His attempts at ignoring me are so obvious they make it hard to ignore him. But not impossible.

Mr. Moore pauses next to me on his way in, but doesn't say anything. Good grades buy a lot of leeway, especially at a pit like Winslow. I know I missed half my classes on Friday. He knows I know. As long as I keep my grades up and don't make a habit of it, he won't make an issue of it. Of course, before I 'fought a girl at school' he wouldn't have even paused.

There aren't many good teachers at Winslow. Most are non-entities, keeping their heads down and going through the motions to collect a paycheck, just hoping they don't get dragged into gang business. The few who really try all have their faults. Mr. Gladly tries to be the fun, dynamic teacher but he's too focused on being popular for it to work as an educational approach. Also, I hate group projects. Mrs. Knott has to teach two computer classes at once, instead of separating skill levels. And her somewhat mannish appearance just makes it harder for her to get some students to take her seriously. Mr. Moore is great at teaching his subject, but he's just some gym time and a buzz cut away from looking like an E88 recruitment poster, so about half the students here assume the worst of him. It's his first year teaching here, and I don't think he has the nerve to stay here even until I graduate. Once again, Winslow is a pit.

«New Quest Alert: Complete [Biology] In-Class Assignment»  
«Complete the worksheet before time runs out. 1:21:26 remaining»  
«Reward: 50 XP, Increased Reputation with Winslow Staff, [Biology] skill»«Failure: Decreased Reputation with Winslow Staff, Increased Reputation with Winslow Students»  
«Accept?»«Yes» «No»

That's new. All we get for class are worksheets. The worksheet is absurdly simple - label the various organs of the worm. Pretty much just a way of checking if we actually paid attention last week. Apparently we weren't, as a few of my classmates are trying to look over my shoulder. I flip the completed sheet over after a few minutes («Quest Completed!») and get to work on a persuasive essay. With a sideways glance at an asian kid who's still staring at my desk, I scrawl out a rough draft about helping cheaters by failing them. It's the little things that make school worth it.

Second period is gym, just like every Monday/Wednesday/Friday. I'm halfway through pulling on my gym shirt when it occurs to me just how _normal_ this is. I helped capture Lung, the most dangerous single parahuman in Brockton Bay last night, and I'm here getting changed for class like nothing has changed. Shouldn't there be this weird feeling of detachment, like none of this really matters anymore? Eh. It's probably better I'm acting the same as always. Well, almost.

Officially, this isn't 'gym class', it's 'personal physical fitness'. Coach Shane lets us choose between weight training and a cheesy cardio-by-kickboxing video, but doesn't let anyone slack off. I've done the video so many times, I could probably do the whole thing with just the music as a reminder by now. Today, I head for the weights. It's not like one class can do much for my AGI or VIT, but STR is low enough I could maybe squeeze out an extra point or two. Also, it's much more quantifiable, so I can see my progress.

Last time I tried to bench press, I managed to complete a set. With just the (weighted) bar. I think that's fifteen pounds. But I couldn't have been above 4 STR at the time. An additional twenty-five pounds on each end should be doable today.

Doable is an understatement. Sixty-five pounds feels almost like benching a broomstick, but I finish a set for the sake of form. Another set of weights slides onto the bar. I'm feeling the weight, but I can do more than this. Another set of weights. That's the stuff. It's a serious strain, but the bar isn't tipping over or crushing me, so it's all good. I probably can't do more than a set like this.

«Through concerted effort, your STR has increased by 1!»

The bar instantly feels lighter. Not 'add another set of the big disks' light, but 'might make it through the second set' light. I settle into a second set.

"James Barron!" I almost drop the bar. Six feet and five inches of bald, tanned ex-Marine (if the rumors are true) is headed my way. Coach Shane doesn't look happy. "What have I told you about spotting?"

Let's think… "Not to do it for anyone else and that there's no point in me bothering with it?"

"That was when you weren't lifting enough to crush your ribcage." Huh? Fifteen plus twenty-five, no, fifty, plus another… and another… I don't weigh that much! "I'll spot for you today, but don't you dare pull this on me again. I'm not getting another injury on my record because you picked up bad habits when you couldn't lift enough to hurt yourself."

Think I just found a downside to my increased stats. Spotting is awkward. There's a grown man in stretchy shorts looming over my head. I finish the set in silence before switching one of the machines. This one has me pulling a bar down to pull weights up. I set the thing to sixty pounds and take a seat. The bar is just out of sitting reach. I shift up, but a pair of tanned hands grab it first. Is he spotting me on a machine? Is that a thing? Weird. I do my best to ignore him. He isn't saying anything anyway. I just focus on finding my new limits on one machine after another.

Eventually, he breaks the silence. "Alright people, I'm in a good mood," Fuck, last time he said that we all had to run laps until we collapsed. "So let's call it a day a little early. Hit the showers. That includes you, Mark. Changing clothes isn't enough." I rack the barbells I've been curling for the last few minutes and head for the door. A hand around my wrist brings me to a halt. "Not you, James. I'd like to have a word with you."

Coach Shane's fairly laidback in class. There's none of that showing on his face as he takes a seat in a balance ball. I perch on the odd abbreviated bench-thing for sit-ups, ready for anything.

"James, mind telling me what's going on? At the beginning of this semester you could barely lift the bar." That's not true! I could lift the bar, I just couldn't if there was any weight on it. "You haven't been in this weight room since then. Even if you had been in here everyday, your growth is nothing short of astonishing." Crap. "What I'm trying to ask is…" He leans in as his voice quiets. Shit. "Is the stuff you're on good enough to still pass a drug test?"

"What?"

"I'll be honest here. I don't approve of steroids. But with the girls' track team bringing home medals, Blackwell wants the other teams to earn some trophies. If our football team doesn't start winning games, she's going to make me do weekend training for the guys. And that would cut into my weekend plans. I think I can turn you into a decent running back or a passable lineman, but there's no point if you're going to get disqualified. So. Can you pass a drug test?"

Can I? Should I? ...do I even want to? Actually, I really don't want to play football. Too much attention, too much time, too… pointless. Sports have never been my thing, and compared to yesterday? It kinda sounds boring.

"Sorry, Coach. A full battery of tests would get me disqualified." I hope I look suitably chagrined. I certainly hope I don't look as pleased as I feel.

"Dammit." Now it's his turn to look embarrassed. "Pretend I didn't say that. And that we had this conversation. But if you can pass by next fall, I want you to try out."

I'll be a Ward long before then, happily attending Arcadia, doing no sports. "I'll do my best."

"That Tinker crap is more obvious than you think. Go get a shower before anyone else notices you aren't sweating. But hurry, class is almost over."

Lunch time. No real hurry. The first week freshman year was enough to warn me away from the cafeteria lines. I just need five minutes in a corner somewhere to eat my sandwich. Maybe I'll try to catch Taylor in the cafeteria? It's on the other side of the school, but I don't exactly have anything else to do for the next hour.

As I near Mr. Gladly's classroom, I hear a hated voice, dripping with familiar malice. "What's the matter, Taylor? You look upset." There's a gaggle of cruelly giggling girls crowding the hall, clustered around four very familiar girls. Most prominently, a… gifted redhead looms over a cringing slender brunette.

«Emma Barnes»  
«Level 9»  
«Treacherous Bitch»

"So upset you're going to cry yourself to sleep for a straight week?"


	33. Guild Invites 4-4

**Guild Invites 4.4**

Telling my story to my father was different than all the other times I'd told the story about how Beetle Knight and I took down Lung. I started with meeting Beetle Knight, but that wasn't a good place to start. I wasn't about to disclose how easily James could unmask capes. So I had to skimp on details, which I claimed was to protect James's secret identity. I did admit to knowing James years before, and that he was one of very few people who stood up to my bullies at Winslow. That mollified my father enough to continue. I gave my father the same Brute/Thinker that got better with practice half-truth version of James's power. I admitted that the Dungeons and Dragons group was a lie, and the story of my made up friends unraveled.

I had to backtrack to explain that my friend 'Paris' was actually Parian. My father was excited about my deal with Parian. He wanted to see my costume and was very impressed despite the soot stains and battle damage. I mentioned the missing skirt-nets and cape, but he focused on the armored costume. He really liked that we had discussed the possibility of a partnership where I provided spidersilk cloth and she did costume design. The praise felt pretty good until I realized why he was so excited.

"You want me to go rogue instead of being a hero, don't you?"

My father spread his hands and shrugged. "Is being a rogue such a bad thing? Especially at your age? Maybe postpone fighting in the streets until you're older?"

I was about to say no. I had every intention of being a hero and fighting crime. However, Miss Militia had a point. James and I could have died last night. Fighting Lung had been a mistake. James's power accelerated our learning curve to bullshit levels. It really made better sense to step back and focus on training. We'd come so far in two days. I could only imagine how far we could be in two weeks. Taking time off now to train would make us both better and stronger heroes with the added bonus of keeping my father happy. After a few weeks maybe he would come around to the idea of Beetle Knight and me fighting crime.

"I don't know." Time to play things cagey with my father. "I still want to be a hero someday, but we certainly didn't plan to fight Lung last night. I think Beetle Knight and I need to spend more time in training. That would give me time to explore the rogue thing as a sideline."

«Your skill in [Bluff] has increased by 1.»

My father clearly wasn't buying what I was selling. "How much practice? Weeks? Months? Until you're eighteen?"

I was annoyed by the pop-up. I wasn't really lying, just shading the truth a little. Besides it obviously hadn't convinced my father. "Um, what if I agree not to go out again to fight crime until I've discussed it with you."

"Agreed." My father snapped on that offer with a predatory grin. "At a minimum. Now, tell me about how you ended up in a fight with Lung if you didn't plan it."

"Sure." Heh, I was doing better at this than I expected. I'd already got my father to agree to me continuing to practice with James and he wanted me to pursue my deals with Parian. I launched into my by now well-rehearsed version of how Beetle Knight and I had fought Lung. My father picked at different details. Like why we had decided to follow the ABB members after we'd slipped their net.

"That right there was your first mistake. Do you have a Stranger power that you've been hiding?"

"No." Although «Stealth» might get there some day. "However, I can observe people through my bugs from blocks away."

"So to recap, you decided to try and be sneaky despite not having Stranger powers." My father negotiated for a living. I'd been on the receiving end of this tactic before. He was twisting what I said, making it sound stupid, or at least more stupid than it actual was. "Please, continue."

I continued omitting most of the details like how we'd used an Illusion Barrier to dodge them. I only said that we followed them to a meeting and then moved in even closer down a tiny narrow alleyway.

"And there we have another mistake. I thought you said that you could monitor them through your bugs from blocks away. Why did you need to get in close?"

"So we could hear. I can only track position through my bugs. I don't have sight or sound." At least not yet.

"Taylor, can you at least admit in hindsight that sneaking up on an ABB gang meeting was an action that was likely to lead to getting in a fight?"

I frowned. I couldn't argue that point, because that was exactly what had happened. "I guess, but if we hadn't sneaked up, we wouldn't learn that Lung was going to kill kids. That's why we intervened."

My father pounced. "And that's where you made another mistake. Why did you have to take on Lung alone? Couldn't you have called the PRT or the cops?"

I suppressed a snort at the idea of regular Brockton Bay police trying to stop Lung from doing anything. "If I'd had a cellphone, I could have called, but I didn't have one." Low blow. Driving and texting had killed Mom, but if I had a cellphone I could have called for help. I also could have told my father that I was running late.

My father's face twisted into a grimace. "You know why I don't like those things, but… you're right. _If_ you continue this, we'll get you a cellphone."

Hooray, a small victory in what was turning into a rout. I decided not to mention the PRT phone that I'd hidden. Having my own cell phone would be very useful. It was also a huge concession from my father. I needed to stay positive. This could be worse. I'd expected to be grounded forever and shoved into the Wards.

"So, not having a cellphone you thought that the only other option was to throw your lives away to save kids?"

"That's what heroes do!" I'd agree to a delay for training, but my powers were stronger than I'd realized. I'd taken down Lung with James's help. "Besides, we didn't throw our lives away. We won." How did that quote go? Victory forgives all?

"You think that makes it okay?" Apparently not with my father. "What you said before about starting with gang members, that made sense. Launching your hero career by attacking Lung was more like suicide."

"I get it, okay. Following the ABB was wrong. Sneaking up close to the meeting was wrong. Trying to save kids was wrong. Obviously you think trying to be a hero is wrong." I grabbed my old sneakers and started putting them on.

"What are you doing?" demanded my father. "This discussion is not over."

"It's over on my side, and it's time for my morning jog, because I'm in training to be a hero."

My father shook his head in denial. "Taylor, don't you understand? You could have died last night. Look, if you're dead set on this we can talk about the Wards, but you're simply too young."

I kept lacing up my shoes. Somehow my father was channeling the spirit of Winslow. When the other side has already made up its mind that you're wrong, there simply isn't any point in talking. Nor was I planning on joining the Wards. Armsmaster was just as good at not listening as my father.

"Just leave me alone. That's what you're good at." The venom in my words felt good when spoken, but left a rancid aftertaste.

"Taylor?" His shocked hangdog look was back. "Go jogging then, but this discussion isn't over."

"Thank you." I pushed past him and out my door, down the hall, and out of my house. I slammed the door behind me. Cliché, but it felt right.

I took off running, not jogging. Usually I paced myself to a steady jog, but I just had to get away. I ran full out, arms and legs pumping as fast as I could manage. The sun wasn't up yet and the light was poor, but «Combat Mapping» was quickly becoming second nature to me and there were enough bugs to map out the ground in front of me. I ran until my lungs burned, and I just couldn't breathe any longer. Only then did my crazed run falter into a jog and then a walk.

«A skill has been created through a special action.»  
«A skill for running at full speed, [Sprint], has been created.»  
«Sprint (Sustained) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%»  
«+5% increase to running speed.»  
« _Don't run until it hurts. Run until the pain stops._ »

I laughed crazily at that and wiped the sweat and tears off my face. I wasn't particularly aware of when I'd started crying. Not until I'd left home, but sometime after during my wild run. I dismissed the window. So, I'd found a Mover power after all. «Sprinting» was a skill, but «Jogging» apparently wasn't. That didn't make sense, but James's power was bullshit. I'd have to tell him. He'd definitely want this one. It had obvious combat applications. If I ever got to see James again. My father would probably ground me until I was eighteen the way he was reacting.

What was I going to do? Dad wanted to force me into the Wards if I did anything at all, but he clearly didn't want me there either. Maybe I could cut him a deal. As long as he let me train with James, I'd postpone fighting crime. Since he didn't know about zombies, he couldn't forbid them. That might actually work. Having worked out a plan I felt better about returning home, once I finished my morning jog. Correction, morning sprints. Looked like I was going to be alternately sprinting and walking for the near future. It suddenly struck me that Sophia was a sprinter. Considering how fast skills leveled up, I'd be outrunning her in no time. On that happy thought I kicked it into gear and sprinted.

I usually jogged until I was tired, which worked out to be about an hour. Sprinting was different. I couldn't maintain a sprint for that long, so I'd sprint, jog, walk, and repeat. Compared to jogging sprinting was brutal. My legs, lungs and even arms ached after each sprint. I called it quits after thirty minutes when I finally levelled to «Sprint 2». I stretched and walked home feeling the pain. On the plus side I hadn't left my neighborhood, so my spiders were making real progress. I already had some skirt-nets and silk cords done.

My father was waiting for me in the living room when I got home. "Taylor, our conversation got a bit heated, but I want what's best for you."

"I guess." What he really meant was that he wanted what he thought was best for me. "I stink. I'm going to take a shower."

My father sighed. "I won't be here when you get out. I have to go to work. I used up all my sick days."

Was that supposed to be a guilt trip? I knew he'd used all his sick days and even taken unpaid leave taking care of me after the locker incident. "Okay. I can manage breakfast and get myself to school." Just like I do every day.

My father frowned. "We'll talk some more tonight. You'd better be here when I get home. We still have to talk about consequences as well as your crime fighting plans. I also want to meet this Beetle Knight. When can you make that happen?"

He wanted to meet James? That wasn't going to be fun. I suppose we could use an illusion barrier to smuggle him into my house, but it would be a challenge. I wasn't looking forward to them meeting, period. James had a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease even when he wasn't drugged. There was much more to him than met the eye, even without his powers, but he was bad at first impressions. The fork thing in a public restaurant was classic James. "I'll talk to him about it and let you know when."

"Okay. Good." He moved toward me hesitantly.

Was he going for a hug? No. I was sweaty and icky and not in a hugging state of mind. "I'm going to wash off then." I dodged my father and ran off to get clean.

A hot shower took care of the grungies and I was feeling much better. My mind was on my bugs and how I was going to get James to meet my father as I dressed. It came as quite a shock when my bra didn't fit right – I needed to let it out a bit. Once that registered I tossed my bra aside, spun around, and raced to my dresser mirror. Was it possible that James's bullshit powers had actually helped me develop? I could see some obvious changes. I had muscles and my breasts looked a bit fuller, but I wasn't sure if they were actually bigger. I tried various poses while staring at the girl in my mirror. I had shoulder and arm muscles. It wasn't a huge change, but enough for me to notice. I'd tried lifting weights to get in shape for heroing, but found it boring. I'd stuck with jogging which had done little for my upper body. Apparently hitting zombies with a bat was a good upper body workout. The effect of going from 9 STR to 16 was quite obvious to me. A flex of my arm showed visible biceps. My shoulders felt strong. After considered inspection I decided that I didn't really have larger breasts, but I'd built up my chest muscles underneath. Not quite as good as actual breast growth, but I'd take it! I didn't notice any real changes in my legs, but I was pretty sure I'd lost some pudge on my belly. Also a good thing.

While the improvements were most welcome, I wasn't going to stand around and admire my reflection all morning. As I got dressed I briefly considered picking out something to show off my changes, but I was heading into Winslow. Besides, I didn't really own clothes like that. Dad didn't buy me clothes any more. He just pushed money at me and told me to go shopping. He also apparently had no idea how much clothes cost for girls. So that meant I got most of my clothes on the discount rack or at thrift stores. Gram had given me a few nice things for Christmas, but they were for dressing up. No way would I wear them to Winslow and see them destroyed. So it was into my usual blue jeans, shirt and hoodie combination.

To celebrate my new muscles I cooked myself a hot breakfast of French toast and bacon. I would be burning those calories off. Plus, if I was hanging out with James, then I had to plan on eating a lot of rabbit food. In the process I learned the «French Toast» recipe and earned «Cooking 2». Dad left me a fresh pot of coffee which I pounced on despite not being that tired. It struck me as odd that I hadn't slept at all, but wasn't exhausted. Levelling up must have given me some kind of boost. A nap didn't sound like a bad idea. It had been an intense day, but I wasn't fighting off the urge to crawl into bed. In fact I was ahead of schedule and had a little time to kill before heading to Winslow.

I grabbed my backpack and headed downstairs to the basement to check out how my spiders were getting along weaving replacement skirt nets and silk cords. Weaving silk cords was very easy. I just had multiple spiders weave thread while dancing around a central line like it was a maypole. I would need lots of silk cords to make a silken rope, but I had quite a bit of cord for testing. It was the thickness of fishing line, and I couldn't snap it with my hands. These cords would probably be enough to tie up normal criminals, but I wanted something that could hold a Legion Zombie or a Brute. When we'd first fought it, I'd been scared for my life. However, with lots of rope and some planning, we could take one down. Given that it dropped skill books that granted paranormal abilities, we probably would fight it again – someday.

I also wanted to clean up my costume. It had been damaged in the fight, but when I looked it over my armor wasn't damaged any longer. Every piece of my armor was clean and pristine. I couldn't smell sweat or smoke on my costume. What I smelled was more bullshit from James's power. Somehow his power had cleaned, repaired and restored my armor, but when? The only thing I could think of was when I was changing clothes. Somehow using the «Inventory» function to change had restored my armor. In some ways it was a tiny thing, but never having to do laundry again was a really sweet minor power.

On closer examination my armor hadn't been perfectly restored. Some of the chitin layering had fractured and broken where Lung had punched me in the belly. That wasn't unexpected. I had expected they would shatter under a hard enough blow, just like the ceramic plates in bullet proof vests. They'd done the job and softened the blow, but now they needed to be replaced. Fortunately my costume was designed with that in mind. My breastplate looked solid, but it was actually composed of multiple layers. I opened a seam for my bugs to crawl inside, clean out the broken places, and insert replacement chitin. It was curious that James's power had fixed most of the damage, but not that. Was it because the chitin was expected to shatter under heavy blows? Or was that just too much damage for James's power?

While I had my armor out, I decided to replenish my utility belt. I added epi-pens and glow sticks to replace the ones that I'd used. Hmm, I'd never even considered using my pepper spray or screamer on Lung. I might want to rethink those. If I wanted someone deaf and blind, it would be far easier to just put bugs in their eyes and ears. I would be better off with more silk cords and skirt-nets. I also found the cash that had dropped from Legion Zombie. Two hundred and ten dollars wasn't a huge amount of cash, but it would buy a lot of skill books. I didn't trust it in my backpack at Winslow, but I didn't have gym today so it should be safe in my pockets. There was also the dragon fang earring and the dragon scales. I had no clue what they did. I tried saying, "Observe," over and over, but never triggered the skill. I'd have to ask James about them later

While my bugs were busy, I played around with «Swarm Clone» trying to get an idea of what all I could do with the ability. My control wasn't that great. I could make pretty realistic humanoid figures as long as they stood still. It still didn't look like a person, but the clones looked like a person might be hiding under the screen of bugs. However, when I tried to make the swarms move, they became a lot less realistic. They didn't walk so much as flowed from one place to another moving in ways that real people couldn't. Still, under poor lighting conditions, they could be damned useful.

The popup notice that I'd leveled to «Swarm Clone 3» was quite welcome and also a reminder that I needed to get my ass to Winslow. Not that I felt that guilty. My bugs had replaced the damaged chitin in my armor and only needed to seal things up. Even better I'd leveled up «Cryptography», «Singing», and all the bug powers I practiced with the exception of «Clairsentience Blocking». Since that skill was at 90, I wasn't too surprised it was taking longer to level up. Unfortunately I had to put away my powers. Due to a certain trio and their hangers on I didn't dare open myself up to my powers even a crack at school. My emotions leaked out into my bugs far too easily, and without control I could easily go Carrie on Winslow.

I'd played with my armor and powers so long that I needed to jog to get to class on time. Usually jogging cleared my head, but with my destination being school it felt like each step I took added more and more weight to my shoulders. By the time Winslow came into sight I had slowed down to a walk, the walk of doom. I felt almost blind. I'd really come to rely on «Combat Mapping» over the past two days. Now there were people walking all around, and all I had to rely on my eyes and ears. I pulled my hoody down to hide my face and shuffled into the school. Actually, it wasn't really a shuffle. My feet were barely leaving the ground. I was doing crescent steps: weight on left leg, half-step with my right draw a crescent moon from inside to outside with my foot while lightly sliding over the floor. Then I centered my weight on my right leg and repeated the crescent moon slide with my left. It was an «Aikido» thing, keeping contact with the ground to make it harder to have my feet swept out from under me by any attackers. Since I couldn't use my bugs, I kept mumbling «Detect Enemies» over and over. I found no sign of the trio or any of their hanger's on, but I did get a sense that quite a few people were watching me. The pop-up announcing that I'd gained a level in «Detect Enemies» was no comfort to me.

I was relieved to make it to my homeroom without being pranked or taunted. I liked Computer Programming. Mrs. Knotts was manly enough in appearance to make me wonder if she was transgendered and had once been Mr. Knotts, but that didn't impact her ability to teach. What did affect her teaching was that three-quarters of the class (a) knew nothing about computers and (b) didn't really want to learn. She usually gave the more competent quarter of the class, which included me, an assignment to work through on her own while she spent most of her time spoon-feeding the rest of the class. It certainly helped that none of the terrible trio were in this class. Two of their groupies shared the class, but neither were in the advanced section. So I was mostly left alone.

Today started the same as it usually did. Mrs. Knotts offered me a tight-lipped smile as I slunk into class and took a seat. She made a few introductory comments to all of us before giving the advance group our assignment. There were data files stored on the network representing the sales volumes for a fictional company from different stores. We had to read the data from the files and report sums in a few different ways. Basically something that Microsoft Excel could do in seconds, but we had to write a program to do it. It was typical of the kind of in-class assignment she'd give us. What wasn't typical was the popup.

«New Quest Alert: Complete [Computer Programing] In-Class Assignment»  
«Complete the Analyze Chain Store assignment before time runs out. 1:18:15 remaining»  
«Reward: 50 XP, Increased Reputation with Winslow Staff, [Computer Programming] increase»  
«Failure: Decreased Reputation with Winslow Staff, Taunting»  
«Accept?»  
«Yes» «No»

The fifty points of experience was a joke now, but the other rewards were nice. More importantly I was going to do the quest anyway, so why wouldn't I accept it? I pressed «Yes» and got to work.

It was easy. I normally completed my assignments in fifteen minutes, thirty tops, but this time I got it done in a little over five minutes and that included the agonizingly slow time it took my computer to boot up. Part of that was from having all the commands of BASIC memorized, but a larger part was now having a clue about how programs should be structured. Last week I probably would have would have individually coded out each step. With my new knowledge I pulled the data into an array, did a few row and column manipulations, and tacked on some output instructions. I saved my result on the class network where Mrs. Knott could look it over, and boom – done.

«Quest Completed!»  
«You have gained 50XP»  
«Your skill in [Computer Programming] has increased by 1.»  
«Your skill in [Computer Programming] has increased by 1.»  
«Your reputation with Winslow Staff has increased»

Nice. Two levels for five minutes of work. That had been too easy. That thought bounced around in my head. It really had been too easy. Granted that I hadn't memorized a book on computer programming before, but I still could have done the assignment in fifteen minutes tops. However, the way I would have done the assignment would have been awful. I would have done multiple extra steps and just kludged everything to get a result. I'd had no clue about how to structure a program, or manipulate arrays efficiently and that little exercise wouldn't have taught me anything. I glanced over to Mrs. Knott who was still lecturing the rest of the class. I could hear the frustration in her voice and see the apathy in the other students. They were taking all her time and attention. It suddenly struck me that I wasn't being taught in this class at all. I was being babysat. I was given a short little assignment every day, to keep my attention, the way some of my babysitters would hand out coloring books. Then as a reward I was allowed to surf the net. I'd never really learned anything about programming in this class. For a moment I felt betrayed by Mrs. Knott. She was supposed to teach. However, hearing her jump onto Jesus to wake up... Well, I couldn't really blame her. Anything she taught me would leave most of the class behind, and clearly they were taking all her time.

With a sigh I turned to the internet. If this was my bribe for not getting taught, then I may as well enjoy it. Besides, I did have things to research. When I logged in I found two messages waiting for me.

Private message from MissMilitia  
Lady Bug,  
I just wanted to let you know again that bringing in Lung was an impressive achievement for any hero, doubly so on your first night. I wanted to be sure you had my contact information. I hope that we can set up a meeting between you and the Wards soon. Beetle Knight would be welcome to join.  
You did good,  
Miss Militia

Well now. I felt a warm glow settle over me. Someone at least appreciated me, and she had invited Beetle Knight to come along. That was interesting given that Armsmaster was her boss. The other message was interesting as well.

Private message from AllSeeingEye  
Subject: Dragonslaying  
Sorry he got back up. Didn't see that coming. Owe you two now. Would like to repay the favors.  
Meet?  
Tt

So the villainous thinker wanted a meet. If I did meet Tattletale, I'd bring James along and that could be dangerous. Tattletale obviously had some kind of thinker power, and James's powers were better kept secret. On the other hand, having a Thinker owe us some favors could be really good. Depending on how she intended to repay us. Tattletale had claimed to be gray. How gray was she? I had somehow missed the Undersiders when researching the cape scene in Brockton Bay. I obviously needed to change that.

It wasn't too hard to find a wiki entry for the Undersiders. Grue had a history of petty crimes and the power of darkness generation. Tattletale was a non-entity. All I found on her was a stub with her name on it and an invitation to add details. Regent had even less information. He didn't even have a wiki page. That left Bitch, but I found her information filed under Hellhound. There was a lot of information on her. Real name Rachel Lindt, known to be hostile, antisocial and violent. Do not approach or provoke. Leave the area and report to the authorities. Yikes. There was a wealth of background on her. Her powers manifested at fourteen when she destroyed her foster home and injured her foster mother and two other foster kids. Since then she'd fought her way across four states with numerous skirmishes with authorities. She had the power to empower dogs turning them into the creatures that I'd met on the rooftops. She was wanted for a number of crimes, but the worst was only aggravated assault with a paranormal power. Apparently Rachel was a bit of a darker gray than the other three. Although Grue was called an enforcer. If that meant what I thought it did, he'd done things like break people's knees for loan sharks. All in all the Undersiders were into corporate theft, the largest of which was hitting Ruby Dreams, which explained why Lung had been after them.

Frustrated by the lack of details I turned to Lung's entry and found it was going crazy. Lung had been captured by Armsmaster. Lung had been taken down by Empire Eighty-Eight. Lung had been captured by three unknown capes. Sorting things through by what was trending I found links to videos. I wasn't surprised that they existed, because too many windows had been lit up, but I was curious what they showed. The first few that I clicked on showed very little. Just three blurry figures fighting. The only way that I could identify Lung was that he was the one on fire. However, there was another one that that was linked to Channel 7 news official site. It had been digitally enhanced and was much clearer. Lung was easy to make out as was the fact that he was fighting someone in golden armor and a person dressed in dark colors with a bug helmet. The video was still poor quality and I wasn't at all impressed with the names we'd been dubbed with. I was being called Golden Knight and James was being called Mantis, because they were bugs with big heads. Our brief meeting with Tattletale had been captured, but she barely showed at all, so she was being billed as Mysterious Stranger. Yet for some reason, despite having a blurry image of Tattletale, they hadn't caught Armsmaster shooting James on video. Instead they just noted his collapse, which was presumed to be from lingering injuries.

I was so frustrated that I was ready to post the truth on the boards. I only held back because PHO forums are full of bullshit, and no one would believe me. In fact when I searched for 'Lady Bug' I found a post by Jo Brister, my number one fan, who stated my name was Lady Bug and my partner was Beetle Knight, but had been promptly disbelieved. Should I start my own wiki page instead? Why exactly should I care? This would sort itself out once the PRT went public that Lady Bug and Beetle Knight took down Lung. I blamed Armsmaster that nothing had been said yet. I spent the rest of my time studying up on Bakuda and Oni Lee instead. They still sounded like a scary power synergy that I did not want to face.

Because I took the time to make sure I was properly logged out when the bell rang, I arrived at World Issues just before the bell rang. My usual seat: front row, far right, by the door had been sabotaged. There was a puddle of orange juice in the seat. The titters from Madison's direction made it clear who was responsible. I ignored her and took a seat a few seats down just before Mr. Gladly entered. Because he was both short and young, he could almost pass as a student instead of a teacher. After spending the usual few minutes trying to settle the class down, Mr. Gladly ordered us to break up into groups of four and to share our homework in small groups to be presented orally at the end of class.

The heavy emphasis on group work was one of many reasons that Mr. Gladly was my least favorite teacher. What happened next was that everyone rushed to sit with their friends and not group with me. As usual I was stuck in a group with Sparky, a long haired drummer out of touch with reality and perpetually stoned, and Greg Veeder. Greg at least had brains. He just didn't know how to use them. He was like a more pathetic version of James before James had powers. No, it wasn't fair to James to compare him to Greg. Even when James had been high on sandman, he'd still been better than Greg. Stoned James might even have been funny if Armsmaster hadn't been a dick about the whole situation.

Sparky had nothing to contribute or share but drool. Greg just wanted to talk about some game called Space Opera that he'd spent all weekend playing. I'd probably blow his little mind if I told him that I'd spent all weekend being an actual game character. So that left it to me to do the job – another reason that I hated group work. Fortunately, I'd actually done a good bit of work on Friday night, so I had a well-developed list of ideas on the topic of how capes had changed our world. Unfortunately, that's when Mr. Gladly noticed that Madison's group had five people and we only had three. Julia was forced to come join our group. My list of ideas went from me, to Greg, to Julia, to Madison. As quickly as that my hard work had been appropriated, and Madison would be claiming the credit.

Why exactly did I put up with this shit? For a moment I toyed with the idea of getting up and ripping my paper out of Madison's hands. However, I'd tried protesting similar situations in Mr. Gladly's class before. Madison, and all four of her friends which included Julia in my group would back up Madison. Greg would say nothing, and I doubted Sparky even had a clue. Since every member of the trio had turned in homework in my handwriting in the past without getting in trouble for it, today wouldn't be any different. At that point I just gave up on World Issues for the day. What was the point?

I had a sudden epiphany as I sat there. Why was I even bothering to go to school? What did I really learn at Winslow? I was supposed to be learning Computer Programming, World Issues, Art, Geometry, Biology, PE, and English. I had powers. I was going to be a cape. Would any of those courses make me a better hero? I already knew more about English than my teacher. I been ahead of the curve in Computer Programming before I'd picked up the skill, and Mrs. Knott wasn't teaching me anything. What was the point in sitting in Biology class when I could learn «Anatomy 25» by memorizing _Gray's Anatomy_? I bet I could find similar books that would make Geometry, Art and World Issues irrelevant. As for PE, it was a joke compared to what I'd learned using James's power. Maybe I should just memorize the right books, drop out, and get my GED. That would give me more time to devote to training. On one hand, dropping out of high school was crazy, but James's power was full-on bullshit when it came to training. Thinking about it rationally, what good was high school doing me? Nobody wanted me to be here. I didn't want to be here. What I was learning here would not help me with a career as a cape. Time in class could be better spent fighting zombies. Every moment in Winslow was time that I wasn't training up all my bug powers.

The rest of the class just further bore out what a waste of time Winslow was. I wrote out my ideas that Madison had stolen, but Mr. Gladly chose Greg to be the speaker for our group, and he botched it. Mr. Gladly didn't even let him finish talking. Madison spoke for her group, delivered my ideas poorly, and got second place overall. By the end of class I was seriously thinking about tracking down James at lunch and just cutting for the day. We needed to talk, and maybe he could open up a zombie instance at Winslow. Smashing zombies inside Winslow high would be a great stress reliever.

Mr. Gladly approached me at the end of class as everyone gathered their things. Quietly he said, "I'd like you to stick around for a few minutes, please."

Really? I stared at him a moment wondering what this was about. Then I gave him a shrug and a nod. I watched and waited while he spoke to the winning team about how he'd give them some vending machine goodies.

When it was just me and Mr. Gladly, he cleared his throat. "I'm not stupid, you know."

"I never said you were." He wasn't stupid, but what did you call a grown man who was still trying to score points with the 'cool' high school kids? Sad? No. Useless? No. Pathetic! That was the word for it.

"I have some idea of what goes on in my classroom. I don't know exactly who, but I know some people are giving you a pretty hard time?"

"Really? What do you know? Did you know that someone poured orange juice in my usual seat?"

"Yes, that's partly why I brought this up."

"Uh-huh." And he just now noticed? "And did you notice that Madison stole my homework and presented it as her group's work today."

"Cheating is a very serious accusation Taylor. Madison is one of my better students." He tried to fix me with a stern glare.

After the weekend that I had I wasn't' getting stared down by a teacher who was shorter than me. "Really? What about shutting me in locker full of toxic waste?" I gave him my «Intimidate» glare in return.

"There was never any proof who put you in there."

I snorted. "So, Madison cheated today. She stole my homework. Are you going to do anything about it?"

He frowned. "It was an oral report. Will anyone in your group back you up?"

"No. Sparky is on drugs. Greg has no spine, and Julia is the one who stole my homework and gave it to Madison. So ball back in your court, teach. What are you going to do?"

"I can't do much without proof." He dramatically wrung his hands together. "We could fill out a report in the office, try to document a pattern of behavior."

"You want proof. I spent a week in the hospital. I say that Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes and Madison Clements put me there, but hey, maybe the magical faeries did it."

He looked down at his feet and didn't say a damn word.

"Yeah, nice talk." I turned and walked away. "Loser." I made sure to say it loud enough that he heard me.

"Taylor, we can make a report. It might not sound like much, but it's a starting point."

That wasn't a starting point. That was shooting myself in the foot. I walked out and right into Emma, Madison, Sophia and a half dozen other girls waiting for me.

"She's a nobody. Nobody wants her. Nobody likes her. She should just go away." said Julia

"She's pathetic," growled Sophia. She spoke like some kind of jungle cat, hungry and ready to pounce. "She doesn't even bother to come to class any more. We had a major project in Art last Friday worth a third of our grade and she no-showed."

"If she's not even going to try, she might as well lay down and die. Why bother coming to school?"

"She makes me want to hurl just to look at her."

Honestly I partly agreed. Why did I keep coming back for this? If that talk with Gladly had proved anything, it had proved that speaking up was futile. Certainly there was no use trying to get a word in edgewise here. Each cutting remark was sharper than the next, but they carefully avoiding mentioning any names – plausible deniability coupled with ignoring my presence. I wanted to make a break for it and just go, but Emma, Madison and Sophia backed me into a corner with the other girls backing them up. The only way I was getting past would be to fight my way past. As I thought about doing that I realized that my bugs were no longer the only thing I had to keep walled off at Winslow. My newly acquired «Aikido» skill offered all sorts of suggestions for throwing some of the girls into the others. I found myself sliding my feet to right angles for better stability and bending my knees a little to center my weight. I also shrugged off my backpack. It would only impede me in a fight. They started piling insults one on top of the other: I was ugly, I stank, I was the school slut, any guy would puke before they touched me. Honestly the things they said even contradicted one another, but they also built on each other suffocating me.

Each little remark took a bit felt like I was being punched. My «Aikido» skill urged me to throw them about like a cluster of bowling pins – starting by tossing one of them right at Sophia. She was the most dangerous one of the lot. In fact I found myself watching the way she stood, aggressive and poised. Unlike the others who were mocking me gleefully, I saw pure malice when I met her gaze. I dropped my gaze to her chin. She really didn't like it when I made eye contact with her. It made her even more angry than usual, but I felt confident that I could take all the girls around me except possibly her with just «Aikido» if I just let myself go. Not that would help me. I knew what would happen. They would all claim that I attacked them for no reason.

No more than a yard behind Emma, I saw Mr. Gladly leave his classroom. The group character assassination didn't even let up. They continued without stopping as he tucked a stack of folders under his arm, found his keys and locked up.

"If I were her, I'd kill myself," one of the girls announced.

"Yeah, she should just drink a glass of drain cleaner."

Mr. Gladly met my gaze with a sad look, and turned and walked away. Not five minutes ago he'd been trying to help. Now, he just turned his back on me. I suppose the evidence of his own eyes and ears just wasn't proof enough. The verbal assault unabated. I had to wonder if Mr. Gladly's offer had ever been sincere. Had he just wanted to know what kids I would name? I felt my fists clench. I wanted to hit them, but I knew what had happened to James. Madison broke his fucking collarbone and she only got a week suspension. If I started something here it would be my word versus all of theirs. Even worse, I might just win and out myself as a cape in the process. The kind of cape who attacks high school kids, or in other words, a villain.

"And she smells like garbage," added one girl lamely.

They were winding down. I started to hope that it would soon be over, but Emma suddenly acted like she'd just spotted me, like she'd been unaware that I was standing there until that moment. She walked toward me with a deliberate stride and the other hyenas made a path for the alpha bitch. "What's the matter Taylor? You look upset?" Her words were too kind, faking concern but she couldn't get it right. Malice just oozed out of her.

Emma – I didn't want to punch her or throw her. I just wanted to slap the ever-living shit out of her, and eight witnesses would all accuse me. The words 'Fuck off and die' were on the tip of my tongue.

However, before I could speak, Emma continued, "So upset you're going to cry yourself to sleep for a straight week?"

I think I'd rather she'd hit me. Those words yanked the rug out from under me. A confidence that I'd once shared with my best friend forever in the wake of my mother's death. It was my mother's flute and death all over again. The pain of betrayal cut through all my emotional armor and tears spilled from my eyes. I felt the buzz of thousands of insects, cockroaches, ants, flies, and more as they resonated with my hurt.

Emma smiled and it was pure evil, what other kind of smile could it be that reveled in the pain caused by betrayal?

"Boo-hoo-hoo, baby's crying!" sang Madison.

I closed my eyes and tried to hold back, not my tears, but the angry voices of millions upon millions of bugs within my range. My walls would come down so easily if I let them. Part of me wanted to let go, call forth my minions and let them feed, but I was better than that. No matter how much they richly deserved it.


	34. Cutscene 4-a Coil

A/N: This is an interlude from Coil's PoV. He's not a nice person. In keeping with the rules nothing graphic is shown, but a lot is implied.

* * *

 **Interlude 4.a (Coil)**

Some individuals given the paranormal ability to split time into two alternatives would take more chances, not Coil. Most people had to live their lives knowing that they could die in any number of ways any day: slipping in the shower, automobile accident, tornado, collateral damage from a cape fight, or another sad statistic in an Endbringer attack. Since they couldn't prevent it, they didn't even try. With his power Coil could prevent such meaningless deaths. As much as possible he tried to anticipate every possible threat to ensure that one version of him would always survive – no matter what.

However, that did not mean that he treated his two alternatives equally. In practice one timeline was usually the safe reality while he took risks in the other reality. When word leaked out that Lung was gunning for his Undersiders, he made just such a split. In one reality he did the smart thing. He told Tattletale to have his Undersiders stay in their base and wait it out. Lung could just rage impotently on the streets. For all his raw power Lung lacked the knowledge to apply it properly. The Azn Bad Boys, his foot soldiers, didn't really hold territory as infantry should. They did little more than act as spotters. Not fighting would cost his Undersiders little in reputation. Even E88 retreated when Lung was in full rage. Besides, they were his spoiler team, not his heavy-hitters, at least not yet. He went home to his ordinary run down home in the suburbs and went to sleep early.

Meanwhile in another reality, he told Tattletale to have the Undersiders go on the offensive against the ABB. It was a good test of her loyalty. Would she follow orders that were obviously suicidal? He had reassured her that his power would protect her, and it would. He would discard the timeline after assessing how well his Undersiders fared against the ABB. Even then he didn't take unnecessary risks. He stayed in his underground based surrounded by well-armed and well-paid soldiers. For him it was a quiet night. He checked his stocks, read the news, and listened to PRT channels to see how his Undersiders fared. He had expected this confrontation from the moment he had sent them rob Ruby Dreams. When facing an undefeatable dragon, the next best thing to winning was being able to twist his tail without getting caught.

The call from Tattletale that the Undersiders had chased off Oni Lee and some ABB gang members was a pleasant surprise. The calls to Emergency and PRT hot lines reporting a cape fight with Lung were expected, but the description of the fight was not. The conversation going on the 'secure' channels was even more interesting. Armsmaster thought he had a tranquilizer that was capable of taking out Lung if used preemptively. That would go on his list to acquire and test. Coil was reasonably certain that a sniper armed with an anti-material rifle would take out an unramped Lung. The trouble was managing to find him before he ramped up. The one attempt he'd ordered against a nine foot tall Lung had failed. Perhaps this tranquilizer would work better.

More interesting than the tranquilizer – Lung was fighting two new capes instead of his Undersiders. He closed his stock portfolio to focus on the incoming news. Two capes, a golden knight and one with a bug helmet. Both very generic costumes. He expected to hear of their deaths shortly, but instead learned that they had taken down Lung. It could be done. Lung had even served time in prison, but it took a good bit of luck and the right power set. He listened with interest as Armsmaster rattled off details on the pair on his supposedly secure line. His extended torture session of the PRTs nighttime communication technician continued to bear such wonderful fruit.

Lady Bug, a Master and a Brute. That was a powerful combination. Most masters were weak to physical attacks. More impressive it was apparently her power that had taken down Lung. She controlled insects and it had been spider venom that had weakened the dragon. The other new cape didn't sound as impressive, a Brute/Thinker combo. However, he had a policy about Thinkers. All Thinkers in Brockton Bay had to answer to him. Thinker powers were well-known to interfere and detect each other. He did not need the city becoming aware that he was more than a minor snake in the grass. That was one reason the Alcott girl was a top priority. Her precognitive abilities were quite strong. She needed to be acquired and placed under his control, just like his Tattletale. Now he had another Thinker to deal with, one with an unknown gift.

Armsmaster did a wonderful job of briefing Miss Militia, and dropped a nice juicy tidbit, the pair were both overdue in their civilian identities. Since most new capes were teenagers, that meant they might be out past their bedtime and concerned parents call the authorities. He had access codes to search for that information, but he would only do the searches in a throw away reality as the systems logged who accessed the data. With Lung out of the picture it seemed more likely that he would be keeping this reality, but he needed more information.

A call to Tattletale revealed more information. She'd been there and seen most of the fight with Lung. She had then chosen to intercede to save Lung's life and score points with the two capes which she identified as heroes. She was able to independently confirm their powers and offered some of her insights. Both were young, fourteen to seventeen. Lady Bug appeared to be the more formidable of the pair, but had been socially awkward and shy. She was very clearly intending to be a hero. Beetle Knight was more talkative and more easily swayed. Despite being their spokesperson he deferred to Lady Bug. Also, he was holding back. He was a lot more than a Brute/Thinker combo.

Coil was certain that Beetle Knight wasn't the only one holding back. Tattletale just fed him what she thought was enough to keep him happy. What he needed was levers. New capes were a dime a dozen. They would die or choose a side, but didn't change the game. However, new capes that could take down Lung, now those were a very rare commodity indeed. Removing Lung from the board was a good thing. The E88 would expand. Kaiser would inevitably overplay his hand biting off more than he could chew. His contingency plan to take care of E88 wasn't ready yet, but it was close. He just had to make sure that the new pieces on the board wouldn't interfere with his own plans.

Briefly he drummed his fingers on his desk. He would certainly be keeping this timeline. He dropped the reality where he was sleeping safely away hidden in suburbia and promptly split the timelines again. In both realities he ordered Tattletale to report to him for a debriefing. The only thing that varied was the time. In one he ordered her to report at 6:00 AM and the other at 8:00 AM.

"Understood, Boss." She sounded just as sullen about it in both timelines.

Tattletale had a talent for pissing him off, but her sulky attitude amused him. It was almost as if she thought that she was about to be raped and tortured for information. Well, she was half-right. He detested the vulnerability of sleep almost as much as having his two selves at the same location. However, here in his secure underground bunker of a base, it was safe as it was possible to make it. In the reality where he ordered Tattletale to report at 8:00 AM, he went to his private bedroom and went to sleep. That became the designated safe reality.

Meanwhile, he remained awake in the throw-away reality. Now was the time to access all the secured and logged files. He was quickly able to determine that there had only been two calls that evening about missing children, both female. One Rachel Lynn Worthington had been missing the required forty-eight hours and one Taylor Anne Hebert had just never returned home that evening. A quick check of data showed that Rachel Lynn Worthington was too short to be Lady Bug while Taylor Anne Hebert fit the physical data. Hospital records showed she'd been treated for a psychotic break back in January. That sounded suspiciously like a trigger event. He would have his Tattletale confirm it, but he was reasonably certain he'd discovered Lady Bug. Really so-called secret identities weren't that hard to uncover. He was half-way through the ranks of E88 already. That was good, but not good enough. When he released all their identities, it would be a death blow to Empire Eighty-Eight. However, it would be a slow death. They would do a lot of damage with their death struggles creating chaos and opportunities.

He had several hours before Tattletale's debrief, so he did some more research on the missing girl's background. Child of Daniel Ray Hebert spokesperson for the Dockworkers Association and Annette Rose Hebert deceased. As a spokesman he had made numerous public statements over the years, none of much importance. The Dockworkers had ceased to be a power in a city since their disaster of a strike shut down the docks. A quick skim showed typical labor union blather with a side emphasis on restoring the ferry service. Digging deeper into the medical records revealed that the suspected trigger event happened during school hours. Using the personal password of the BBISD (Brockton Bay Independent School District) superintendent, he was able to access Winslow's records of the event. Trapped in a locker. Settlement for hospital bills only. The Heberts didn't even get follow-up visits with a psychiatrist. They really got screwed. Any mildly competent lawyer could have gotten them a better settlement. Danny Hebert talked a decent game to the press, but he was either stupid or a paper tiger. Given the general incompetence of the Dockworkers Union, possibly both.

Further digging found paydirt. Three students were punished: Emma Barnes, Madison Clements and Sophia Hess aka Shadow Stalker. A ward was involved in a trigger event? How did he miss that in Piggot's files? Even more interesting was that the girls weren't really punished for the locker. No blame was assigned. They were punished for not helping and in Madison's case attacking another student, James Barron. Hmm, possible boyfriend? Could he have found Beetle Knight? The official records avoided mention of Sophia as a Ward.

He needed more details. Even if he was way off base and Taylor Hebert was not Lady Bug, a cover-up would be useful for blackmail and/or taking down Piggot when the time came. He tried to log in to check Piggot's files, only to find that the paranoid bitch had changed her password again. Had it really been a month already? Why, so it had. She changed her password once a month like clockwork. He would have to schedule a kidnap session sometime soon. She sang quite nicely when installed in his mock-up of the Protectorate's Master-Stranger protocol cells.

And it was almost time for another little bird to sing. It was a little before six and Tattletale had arrived. He had his men direct her to a conference room, and then sent in Creep to soften her up. While he randomly tortured all his assets to root out any treason, his Tattletale required a very short leash. He had the breaking of her down to a science. Everyone had their weak points. Tattletale had proved resistant to most forms of torture, holding out for hours without breaking. However, his Creep was a man of intense hungers. His mercenaries were hardened killers, but even they ostracized his pet pervert. Tattletale always broke down quickly when Coil allowed him free rein. Now, the only question was if he should continue to do computer research here, or if he should treat himself and join in the fun? There was certainly more data to be mined, but on the other hand his Tattletale was such a smug little bitch. Putting her in her place never got old. Decisions, decisions.


	35. Factions 4-2

Factions 4.2 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission. This chapter starts immediately after Guild Invites 4.4

 **Factions 4.2**

Treacherous. The title describes this bitch perfectly. If I recall correctly, she was Taylor's best friend for years before this bullying shit started. It's a damn shame she's a repugnant person, though. She's got curves most of the Senior girls are jealous of and the most striking red hair. She's had some modeling jobs for local advertisements and even a few national catalogues. I hate to admit I saved a swimwear catalogue she was in a year ago.

The flock of social vultures is thick enough it takes a moment to work my way to the center. They just stand there, maliciously smiling while Taylor's eyes visibly start watering. It's hard to reconcile this victim with the hero I fought alongside last night, but when you've got over a year of losses I imagine it gets hard to fight back. Someone's about to learn that things have changed since last week. Taylor's getting a win today if I have anything to say about it.

"Boo-hoo-hoo, baby's crying!" My least favorite person at Winslow is mocking my partner.

«Madison Clements»  
«Level 6»  
«Cutesy Bitch»

I've always seen Madison as the worst of the Bitches Three for personal reasons, but now it's immediately obvious she's less of a threat than Emma. Not that either of them is anything resembling a threat now.

I have no clue what Madison's problem is. She used to be this sweet, cute girl in my class. When all the other non-tomboy girls began wearing makeup and miniskirts before even making it to middle school, she was this little island of innocent femininity in a sea of proto-whores. I had a bit of a crush on her through fourth grade, but couldn't get up the nerve to act on it. Years later, the cutesy act is just an act, and creepy as hell. I like cute, but it's like her cuteness got left out of the fridge too long and has started smelling. Eternal grade-schooler isn't cute, it's creepy. Girl needs to grow the fuck up already. Somewhere along the way she developed a grudge against me.

Just as I breach the inner circle, one of the anonymous twits makes a play for approval. "It's like you have a superpower, Emma!"

I really want to say that colossal bitch isn't a superpower, but I'm not going to start out with profanity. Honestly, I really just want to hit her, but that's even worse. «A smart decision causes your WIS to go up by 1!» So how should I word this? "I would think a supervillain wouldn't need to outnumber someone nine to one before attacking them."

"Supervillain?" The puzzled minion looks familiar. Her hair is dyed that purplish-red that looks good when it's on purpose and bad when it isn't. Considering her hair is in the same cut as Emma's, I'm guessing that's not the color she was going for. Tiffany! That's this idiot's name.

I could make a crack, define 'supervillain' for the moron, but the last time I tried that kind of joke… was Friday. "Unprovoked attacks certainly aren't superhero territory, are they?"

"Oh, she provoked us alright."

"How?" I push as much disbelief as I can into my tone.

Nearly every one of the girls responds at once, all with different answers. Unwarranted complaints of all kinds come from every direction. They can't even keep from contradicting each other.

"Did you just say she's a slut _and_ a prude? How does that even…?" I ignore them for a moment and check on Taylor. She tries to retrieve her backpack from the floor, but a sneaker slips through the strap and pulls it away from her. My eyes follow the shoe to the sock to the pants, scrupulously skip the shirt, and look Sophia dead in the eye.

Sophia is the vicious one. She's got a lean runner's build that works well with her status as the most physically violent of the three. Trips, shoves, and elbows are her weapons of choice, all carefully timed to be 'accidental' or unwitnessed. I'd bet good money she's behind most stairway 'accidents' around here. Too many guys around here are willing to forget her attitude and actions just because her running outfit lets them see the dark field of her (admittedly flawless) abs.

«Sophia Hess»  
«Level 32»  
«Predator»

Not what I was expecting. Much higher level, for one. If she had powers she might be a threat. And what kind of crazy bitch does she have to be to get a title like that?

"What did you call me, nerd?"

Did I say something? Hesitation is death with Sophia though. "You heard me." «Danger!» And now I get it. I must have thought the 'crazy bitch' part out loud. I've got to be more careful about that, especially now.

Emma would have a biting comeback. Madison would play the cute, innocent victim. Sophia opens up with a textbook haymaker. By necessity, it's completely telegraphed. New reflexes guide me into a perfectly executed jab to her right shoulder. Her punch goes completely wide. Fuck. Taking the hit wouldn't cause the kind of shitstorm this will.

«Your reputation with Winslow High has decreased a lot!»  
«Your reputation with Winslow High is now 'Troublemaker'»

"What the hell?" "He just hit her!" "He hit a girl!" "I knew the nice guy act was bullshit!" The harpies shriek and back away, Madison and Emma inching out of my line of sight.

"James!" Turning to face Taylor is a mistake. Sophia recovers quickly and takes advantage of my distraction to get me with a kidney punch. «Critical Hit! -87 HP» Damn. She's got a little kick there. Kinda wish I hadn't left my backpack in my locker; it might have blocked that a little. But she's not hitting nearly hard enough to beat me before I can take her down now. One on one, I got this.

Sophia gets in another strike «-44 HP», this one to my diaphragm, while I'm recovering. An untrained fighter will push now, overextending. I just have to… Crap. She slides back into a practiced stance. Squared shoulders, open hands, curled fingers. It's not «Jeet Kune Do» or anything I've seen Taylor use with «Aikido», so I don't recognize it, but she clearly has some training. The unconcealed fury in her eyes promises she's not backing down. Someone is bound to notice I'm not injured if she hits me too many times. A silent activation of «Dodge» should help with that.

I've heard it said violence is a language of its own. If so, Sophia's speaking a dialect I'm not familiar with and has a bit of a motormouth. I swerve between two rapid-fire punches and throw another probing jab she sways around. Damn it, I should have put more points in WIS sooner. She throws a palm-strike at my nose, but I manage to lean back from it. The level of «Jeet Kune Do» I'll likely earn any second will help, but then I'll be capped again and missing any extra experience from this. Another jab, left this time, intentionally off center. Try and get her to underestimate me. That, and I don't really want to be known at school as the guy who beat up a girl. Would still be better than being the guy who got beaten by Madison. I hope. «Danger!» The warning is a little late, but primitive reflexes snap my knees together just in time to stop her rising foot. Okay, bitch deserves this. A low snap kick clips her shin, but she slides smoothly back a step, instantly recovering her footing. Whoever taught her is good. Too bad he or she has terrible taste in students.

A flash of red behind me and the 'thud' of something large colliding with a locker distracts me for just a moment too long. «-22 HP» Sophia's knee glances off my thigh. Wish my cup wasn't in the inventory right now; she's a little focused on my squishy bits.

"You bitch!" Ignore what's going on behind me. I shove what could have been a serious gut blow out of the way and quickstep over a leg sweep. Focus on Sophia, Taylor can take care of herself against this flock. «Critical Hit! -87 HP» Ow. Right in the solar plexus. I didn't see any levels above 6, other than Emma and Sophia. I lose most of the force behind a punch twisting it to not punch her in the boob, but it still hits her shoulder. «Aikido» is better against crowds. A screaming blonde flies past us. «Jeet Kune Do» is better against one opponent. Sophia's cross is ruined by a quick jab to her bicep. This is the right way to handle this. «-44 HP» That one would have left me with a nasty black eye last week. Trust Taylor. I think Sophia is slowing down...

«-23 HP» There's someone on my back. «-66 HP» Sophia takes advantage of the distraction to plant her fist in my stomach firmly. Hop back, get some space. The form leans forward to press against my shoulders. Oh, that's a girl. That's definitely a girl on my back. I can feel that that's a girl. «-2 HP» Is… is she pulling my hair? «-2 HP» "I got him, Soph!" «-2 HP» Fucking Madison. 2 HP isn't much of a loss by itself, but I'm counting a drop or two per second. «-44 HP» I have _got_ to stop losing focus here. Fuck it, it's two birds time. Brace. Hold. I spin _into_ Sophia's haymaker, but move Madison into the line of fire. There's an audible impact. She drops off my back with a pained yelp. Dammit, I feel a little shitty about that.

Not time for that though. Sophia has her turn to enjoy a hard straight to center mass, but she manages to weaken the impact with a well-timed back walkover «Danger!» and «Critical hit! -109 HP» get in a low kick while she's at it. We both pause for a moment. If asked later, I'm sure we'll both say it's to catch a breath. It's not. I'm in pain, and I'm sure she is too. A moment is all either of us is sparing, though. Fists up, back to it. I'm suddenly reminded of something I heard in the hall once. 'Never hit a lady, but feel free to smack a bitch.' She just nutted me. She's waived the privilege of a clean fight.

Just before I can begin testing the durability of Sophia's nose, a piercing whistle fills the hall. In general, teachers at Winslow don't have the presence to bring a brawl to a stop in a moment like this. Six feet and five inches of tanned muscles can command respect even in these profaned halls. I was really hoping to not see Coach Shane until class on Wednesday, at the earliest. "What the hell is going on here?!"

«Wolf Shane»  
«Level 27»  
«Gym Coach»

The harpies immediately start accusing us. All Taylor's fault, all my fault, I punched Sophia, I _groped_ Sophia, Taylor broke Emma's nose, Taylor broke Emma's _knee_ (which she's walking on just fine), Taylor tripped… someone. I've stopped trying to remember the names of most of the various twits who've attached themselves to Tri Suki. Tiffany is complaining about a broken nail, while girls around her clutch already-bruising limbs. Damn. Taylor totally kicked ass.

Madison is painfully peeling herself off the floor, hugging her right side. I'm not sure if Sophia is realizing how strong Taylor is now, upset at our fight being interrupted, or just upset we all got caught, but she's glaring at everyone, friend or foe. Emma, pinching a bleeding nose, flinches away from her. Guess she's not used to being on this side of that look.

"Office. Now. All of you." No one argues with that tone. We don't make it ten steps before he adds, "No talking," which silences the plotting whispers. A few more steps and he stops Madison. "Nuh-uh. No cell phones. Not until I get to the bottom of this. Hand it over."

"But, I need to call my parents." Madison matches over-wide puppy-dog eyes with a grating, simpering tone. So fucking creepy.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. We'll be calling all your parents."

No. Please God no. No. If Mom finds out… Oh, hey! «Gamer's Mind» to the rescue. I still _really_ don't want my parents hearing about this, but the deep dread I'm anticipating doesn't surface. How badly can she punish me? Yell at me, berate me? I'm not afraid any more. Cut my privileges? I never get a turn with the remote anyway, and three of the last four desserts were cherry-based. Yuck. Ground me? I'd like to see her try to contain someone who can duck into another dimension. Corporal punishment? Pain vanishes in moments now, and the boost to «Physical Resistance» could be useful. Extra chores? Who knows, I might get a new skill, like «Dusting» or «Window-washing». Okay, so wasting skill slots would be a real punishment.

Emma is crying as we approach the principal's office. I'm not exactly excited to be here either, but I suspect her tears are just so much theater. In contrast, Sophia's face is stuck in the same glower she's worn since Shane interrupted our dance. Madison's sniffles may actually be real, given how she's still holding her side.

"Sit." With how many students go through here a day, you'd think they'd have real chairs. Instead, we all perch on bulk-buy aluminum folding chair. Coach Shane ducks into Principal Blackwell's office, leaving a small crowd of rather rumpled females and one slightly ruffled male. This is one time I wish my wounds still showed. As it is, I probably look like I just beat up a bunch of girls. The secretary is certainly looking at me like that's the case. Shane is back before any of us can escalate beyond glaring around the room. "Miss Hess, Clements, and Barnes, Principal Blackwell will see you now." The other six girls get split up and sent to the Vice Principals' offices. This leaves Taylor and I to awkwardly sit with our muscle-bound coach and the sour-faced secretary, knowing all the while that Dre Tikar are spinning some fantastic tale where the whole thing is our fault.

Taylor is completely still and silent. I want to try and talk to her, to make things better, but there's nothing I can say that would help. Well, nothing I'm going to say with our audience. I expect a good discussion about powers and training would take her mind off things for a few minutes. I can't even dismiss my post-combat pop-ups under this scrutiny.

Coach Shane is staring at me with a weird disappointment/understanding hybrid expression. I don't exactly trust myself to speak just yet, so I quirk an eyebrow. He glances pointedly at Taylor. What does that mean? Is a shrug a good reply? I shrug. And now his eyebrow is up. Nod or shake? Nod. I hope I didn't just confess to shooting JFK or something similar.

"You're going to want to watch your temper, James. Your… new diet is helping you get in better shape, but you don't exactly know your own strength right now. A little rough-housing is understandable from our athletes, but you can't have shit like this on your record if you want to play. You can't _fight_ girls." Glarey the secretary gasps at his language, but just continues fiddling with her mouse.

...does he think this is all my fault, some kind of 'roid rage incident? Is that why Sophia gets away with so much shit? Before I can think too hard on the subject, the inner door pops open again.

«Carrie Blackwell»  
«Level 26»  
«Callous Administrator»

The Loathsome Three file out past her, each sneering at us in a smug manner. Dammit. They aren't even trying to be subtle.

"Ms. Hebert, Mr. Barron, I'd like to have a word with you."

* * *

 **Game Stats:**

«+1 WIS» «+1 Jeet Kune Do» «+1 Physical Resistance» «+3 Dodge» «+2 Sense Danger»  
Note from Faria Lyton: A reader pointed out that James leveled «Jeet Kune Do» past his WIS score during the second Lung fight. I made a extremely small edit to the scene to reflect this.


	36. Guild Invites 4-5

**Guild Invites 4.5**

I remember it so clearly. It was the summer I turned thirteen, no longer a pre-teen or a tween, but a real teenager. The summer I got my first period. I'd slept over at Emma's house, like I'd done probably once a week the entire summer. We were eating breakfast, playing music way too loud when Emma's older sister came downstairs. From the look on her face I knew something was wrong. She told me that my mom had died in a car accident. I didn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. Moms don't die. I wanted someone to tell me that it was a sick joke. Emma got me through the days following my mom's death. I remember her sister driving me home. I sat in the back seat with Emma and we both cried our eyes out. Back then she'd thought my mother was cool. Emma had been my rock during those days.

Life didn't stop for my pain, and you can only cry so many tears. It wasn't easy, but day after day passed. I learned it was okay to live my life without feeling guilty that mom wasn't there to share it with any longer. Maybe a month after we'd put her to rest, I was sitting on a bridge in a little park. The same one where I'd been dropped off last night, but it had still been kept up back then. Emma and I were sitting there drinking coffee when out of the blue she'd told me how much she admired me. At times I was completely puzzled about why Miss Perfect: money, looks, and popular; was even my friend. When she said that she admired me because I was resilient, that I'd put my life back together – it had to be a joke. I was getting by, but just barely. I broke down crying on her shoulder and admitted that I'd cried myself to sleep for a week straight.

I should have expected this. The defilement of my dead mother's flute was proof that nothing was sacred, and the locker was proof of how far they would go. Emma would say anything, do anything, just to hurt me. This had been planned. She'd remembered my tearful confession and her only thought had been how to use it to hurt me. She was grinning with glee that her barbed tongue had drawn blood.

"Boo-hoo-hoo, baby's crying!" sang Madison.

I closed my eyes against the pain and focused on the wall in my mind. I felt millions of insects all around me incensed by my pain and anger. It would be so easy to set them loose and unleash a «Swarm of Doom» upon my tormentors who were laughing at my tears.

"It's like you have a superpower, Emma!" one of her followers called out gleefully.

"I would think a supervillain wouldn't need to outnumber someone nine to one before attacking them," said a familiar voice.

My eyes flew open. James?! What was he doing here? For a moment everything seemed better. I was no longer alone. James was on my side. Then reality kicked in. He was in his cocky mode running off his mouth. This could only make things worse. I shook my head back and forth trying to signal him to stop. It was this kind of behavior that almost got him killed and did get him shoved into my locker.

"Supervillain?" Tiffany looked puzzled. She was mostly harmless. She wanted to please Emma so badly she'd gone beyond merely copying her style to dyeing her hair red like Emma's. In terms of personality Tiffany was a much faded copy lacking both Emma's wit and viciousness.

"Unprovoked attacks certainly aren't superhero territory, are they?" asked James, determined to poke the hornet's nest.

"Oh, she provoked us alright," responded one of the pack.

"How?" asked James. He packed a lot of disdain in that one word.

The flock of sheep quickly bleated out their answers explaining why my mere existence was an affront to them: I was fat, ugly and stupid. I was disease-ridden slut and a ten-dollar whore. I was a strung-out drug addict. I was a loser nobody. I a liar, a cheat, and a thief. I made up stories to get attention and blamed everyone else for my failings. I should just die already. Madison joined in the character assassination, but Emma and Sophia were notably silent.

I let the words roll over me, took deep breaths, and pushed back against my angry swarm. I'd heard it all before and it didn't matter. It was just more proof that there was nothing for me at Winslow. Maybe with their attention on James I could slip away. Once I was gone, they'd probably leave him alone. I bent down to retrieve my backpack, but Sophia had moved so that she had her foot on it. Although her attention was focused on James. Maybe I should just leave it. It had my major project for Art, but what did that matter if I was dropping out of Winslow?

"What did you call me, nerd?" Sophia's angry words cut through the babble and hushed the sheep. Their pet wolf was angry.

"You heard me." He tried give Sophia the badass stare, but he wouldn't have scared me let alone the big bad bitch of Winslow. Sophia wasn't having that, and she wound up to do something: push, shove or punch, but before she completed the motion James punched her.

"James!" Oh fuck, I couldn't believe that James threw the first punch. We were so screwed now. Even the sheep knew it. They were bleating away about a boy hitting a girl. Technically true, but Sophia was a girl in the same way that a great white shark was a fish. Sophia retaliated and they started trading blows. My attention went to Emma as she moved behind James and went for a shove.

Ikkyō – first technique. I reached out and gripped Emma's wrist with my right hand, turning with her motion, left hand on her upper arm, pulling her arm straight, and locking her elbow. Now she was off-balance and I controlled her motion. Rather than forcing her to the floor I let go and let her continue onward to collide with Sophia's legs. Except, Sophia danced away and Emma went crashing face first into the lockers. Oh shit! What had I just done? For a moment the gaggle of girls just stared at me while I stared back at them. Maybe they'd stop now?

Tiffany broke the stare-off. "You bitch!" She charged me with her hands up and polished pink nails extended as if to claw out my eyes.

I stepped in, redirected her and tossed her, but I'd enraged the herd and they all attacked me. Really it wasn't that bad. They had no idea how to fight and telegraphed their hair-pulling, face-slapping and just pathetic attacks worse than the zombies I'd fought. «Aikido» seemed designed to deal with this situation. Each attack they made became an opportunity for me to take control, redirect and toss the trio's sheeple into each other. Everything was happening at once. It was so confusing without my bugs to maintain «Combat Mapping». Emma on the floor clutched her bloody nose. Julia behind me. Turn, pivot, tossed her at blonde bimbo number three. James and Sophia traded blows. One of Madison's giggle buddies came at me with… a punch? But she lead from her elbow like this was a slapfight. I sent her flying and I was clear. The rest of the girl herd were keeping well away from me and staring like I'd suddenly grown shaggy hair and started howling at the moon.

James wasn't doing quite so well. Madison had literally jumped on his back, but he had it under control. He spun as Sophia struck, and she punched Madison in the side. Apparently cuteness didn't stop fists. She yelped, let go, and fell on her ass. James didn't stop and punched Sophia, but she converted it into a back walkover with an accompanying groin kick. I knew damn good and well that was a gymnastics move, but I doubted I could pull it off with my «Acrobatics». I started to edge my way into the fight, but James didn't fold. Instead they had a stare-off.

I spotted Coach Shane racing through the halls toward us just before a long loud blast from his whistle cut across all sounds in the hall. That got everyone's attention, but he could handle it. He wasn't one of those gone to seed coaches with more belly than muscles. He towered a full head and shoulders above me and looked like he should be playing football instead of coaching it. He was also clearly pissed off. "What the hell is going on here?!"

There was a moment of silence before the sheep started bleating. "Taylor started it!" "James punched Sophia!" "Taylor broke Emma's nose!" "She tripped me!"

"I think I broke a nail," lamented Tiffany.

I almost broke out laughing at Tiffany. She said it like spoiling her manicure was the worst thing ever. Sophia Hess was glaring at everyone, but apparently even she knew this had gone way too far. Unfortunately she wasn't the one in trouble. She'd only fought with James. I'd attacked most everyone else. On one hand, it was gratifying to see Madison get shakily to her feet while Emma held a tissue to her bloody nose, but I was certain that James and I would be paying for this in spades.

"Office. Now. All of you," ordered Coach Shane.

I turned to follow. How had things gotten so out of hand? I'd held back the bugs, but when the attacks came «Aikido» had almost taken over. This was a disaster. I already knew how this would go. I could already hear them whispering among themselves, working out their story.

"No talking," demanded Coach Shane.

That silenced everyone. Madison immediately pulled out her cellphone – undoubtedly to text Emma.

Coach Shane stopped her. "Nuh-uh, No cell phones either. Not until I get to the bottom of this." He stuck out his hand. "Hand it over."

"But, I need to call my parents." Madison gave him the puppy dog eyes.

Apparently Coach Shane was immune. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. We'll be calling all your parents. Give me your phone. Now."

Grudgingly, Madison handed it over. Coach Shane took it and directed everyone to head to the office.

I looked over at James to assess his damage. Doh, what was I thinking? He looked fine, as always. The question was how many hit points had he lost? I wanted to talk to him, but didn't want to piss off Coach Shane any further. Emma had whipped up a big batch of crocodile tears. I wondered if I had broken her nose. I wouldn't be upset about spoiling her perfect face, but her father would sue my family if I'd damaged his darling girl. Was Emma's face insured?

In the office the school secretary looked up as we all trudged in. She was a crotchety old biddy who hated me for absolutely no reason. Coach Shane seated me and James away from the other and then briefly disappeared. Emma, Sophia and Madison were sent to talk with Principal Blackwell. Various vice principals took different members of the herd. James and I waited with Coach Shane hovering over us.

I tried to look on the bright side. The worst they could do was expel me. No, that wasn't the worst. I knew that my father would take my side over my tormentors, and I wanted to drop out anyway. The worst would be turning me over to the cops and pressing charges. That had never happened to me when I'd been attacked, but I could see them trying to send me to juvie. How was I supposed to be a hero with a criminal record?

I'd picked up a couple of pop-ups during the fight, two levels each in «Aikido», one in «Dodge», and one in «Intimidate». I mumbled quietly to dismiss them while we waited. I'd also noticed several relationship/reputation pop-ups during the short fight for James, Winslow, Emma and Sophia. I wondered if there was a way to check them. I quietly mumbled, "«Relationships»" and was rewarded with a window. Most of it I already knew. James considered me his [Friend] and [Partner]. I had relationships with James, my father, all the Undersiders, Miss Militia, Armsmaster, Clockblocker and Vista. Each came with a little cartoony icon of the person with tiny bodies and huge heads. I also had entries for Sophia and Emma. My status with Sophia was [Prey], whatever that meant. My status with Emma was [Hated]. That really shouldn't have had the power to hurt me. It wasn't really news, but seeing it written out still felt like a slap. Couldn't it tell me why? Also why only those people. I knew a lot more people. Why wasn't Gram on the list? I dismissed the window and whispered, "«Reputations»." A different window opened:

«Villian Groups:»  
«Azn Bad Boys – Hated»  
«The Undersiders – Friendly»

«Hero Groups»  
«The Protectorate – Friendly»  
«Wards ENE – Friendly»

«Other Groups»  
«Winslow Staff – Unfriendly»  
«Winslow Students – Unfriendly»  
«Emma's Clique – Hated»  
«The Dockworker's Union – Honored»

In addition to words each category came with some kind of graphic that went: Hated»Hostile»Unfriendly»Neutral»Friendly»Honored»Revered»Exalted. Shading from dark red to yellow, to green, to silver and finally to gold.

I was startled from my inspection of the Reputation screen when Coach Shane spoke up. "You're going to want to watch your temper, James. Your… new diet is helping you get in better shape, but you don't exactly know your own strength right now. A little rough-housing is understandable from our athletes, but you can't have shit like this on your record if you want to play. You can't fight girls."

What was that all about? Didn't know his strength? Did Coach Shame know James was a cape? But the comment about diet didn't fit in. While I was still pondering that, the door to Principal Blackwell's office opened. She was a narrow woman with a narrow figure and narrower mind. She wore dressed for a funeral: black blouse, black sweater, black skirt, black hose, and black shoes. Her severe bowl-cut made it look like she was wearing a dirty-blonde helmet for hair.

«Fashion Rating: Serious, -10% to initial reaction rolls, +20% to Intimidate rolls. _Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here_ …»

The trio slipped out past her. Sophia glared at us while Emma looked smug, and Madison smirked. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it had been a friendly visit.

"Ms. Hebert, Mr. Barron, I'd like to have a word with you." There was no warmth in her tone or gaze. Clearly she'd already made a decision even before hearing our side of the story.

«Relationship with Principal Blackwell has decreased!»  
«Relationship with Principal Blackwell is now Troublemaker.»

How exactly did that work? Principal Blackwell hadn't been in my «Relationships» window. Had she really just decided that I was a troublemaker? James and I both stood at the same time. After a slight moment of confusion I led the way and James followed me. I quietly dismissed the «Reputations» window as I went. Playing with powers time was over. Time to face the music.

Principal Blackwell's office mirrored her fashion sense, severe, utilitarian, and almost military. No plants and no photos of smiling family members or pets. None of the female touches that would distinguish it from a man-cave. On the walls were two diplomas and a pictures of five graduating classes. I sat down in one of two hard uncomfortable wooden chairs, and James took the other.

Principal Blackwell didn't sit. "Ms. Hebert, I need to search you before we begin."

"What? Why?" Why just me? Why not James?

"I'm not required to give a reason. Please hand me your backpack and remove the jacket."

James butted in. "I don't believe you. Lockers are one thing; they're school property. Taylor's backpack is her private property. Without reasonable cause, you have no right to search her property. And no, I am not taking your word for it. Taylor shouldn't either."

I glanced at my defender. "It's alright, James. I have nothing to hide." I was lying. It wasn't alright. I was being singled out again, but it wasn't worth fighting. I handed over my backpack.

I wasn't sure what I'd done to earn this attention, but I was damned glad I hadn't tried to bring my costume to work. I was also glad that I'd kept the $210 that was my share from the Legion Zombie in my pocket. That was a lot of money and I'd been afraid that it would vanish from my backpack like too many other things had done. I watched in silence as Ms. Blackwell thoroughly searched my backpack. There was nothing in there that shouldn't have been. At least my art project wasn't damaged.

She nodded when she was done. "Please stand. I'm going to do a pat down search as well."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" James shot back to his feet. "You're not a cop. You can't just search students for no reason. A pat down? That's just wrong. We have rights in this country."

Blackwell frowned at him. "Mr. Barron, if you read your student handbook that you signed, you'll find that faculty have broad powers of discretion. Numerous court decisions support that. All that I am required to have is a reasonable suspicion, which in this case I have." She turned to me. "Ms. Hebert, there have been allegations that you have drugs in your possession. If you're innocent, it is in your best interest to have this allegation addressed. Now, you can either submit to a pat down search by me, or I can have the resource officer and the school nurse perform a strip search in the infirmary. Which do you prefer?"

James muttered something that I'm pretty sure was 'bullshit', but I ignored him. So that was why she searched my backpack. Drug use. I'm surprised the trio hadn't tried this already. Thankfully they hadn't gone as far as actually planting anything. "I'll take the pat down. I have nothing to hide." Another lie. I had the cash, which I couldn't really explain.

«Your skill in [Bluff] has increased by 1.»

"Thank you for your cooperative attitude, Ms. Hebert. Mr. Barron, could I ask you to turn and face the wall please?"

James gave me a long look, sighed and turned away.

I stood up. What was it that I was supposed to have? I hadn't used a weapon. They couldn't know about my roll of tens. Ms. Blackwell patted me down, including my breasts, and paused at my pockets. "Turn out your pockets, please." Her voice sounded more tense.

Naturally. I turned out my pockets revealing my house key and the cash.

Mrs. Blackwell pounced on them and counted them. "Two hundred and ten dollars, in tens." She carefully looked at a few of them. "Freshly pressed, but non-sequential. That's an awful lot of money to be carrying at school."

I had to agree. It was a lot of money. Especially considering that my clothes were from the thrift store. She almost certainly thought I was either buying or dealing drugs now, but cash wasn't proof. I exercised my right to remain silent.

"Care to explain why you're carrying so much cash, Ms. Hebert?"

I decided upon the truth. "I planned to go shopping after school." For skill books.

She stared at me for a long while before nodding. "You can put away your backpack and your cash. I recommend you don't bring that kind of cash to Winslow again. Students have been knifed for less money."

"You can turn around, James." I slid the roll of cash back into my pocket and returned my other stuff to my backpack. I could feel myself flushed. I'd done nothing wrong. There was no law against looting zombies. However, I certainly looked like I was taking part in something criminal.

She sat down and rummaged through two manila folders until I was done. Only then did she speak. "So this will be the first time in my office for both of you, but not the first incident between you, James, and the three young ladies who just left. I would have thought that you and Miss Clements had learned your lesson about fighting from your last altercation." There was a lecturing tone to her words, one that was far too familiar to me after my talk with my father this morning, clearly she had her mind made up already.

James opened his mouth and then closed it. "I didn't start it then, and I didn't start it today." The tone was more even than I expected from James.

I jumped in to back James up. "I haven't been here before, Principal Blackwell, but you've spoken to my father before. Or have you completely forgotten the locker incident where the three… girls that just left your office shut me in my locker and left me to rot in a pile of human waste?"

Principal Blackwell turned her gaze to me. After facing down Lung, she wasn't scary at all. "I clearly haven't forgotten that incident. I just referenced it. It is plain to me that there is bad blood between the two of you and Ms. Hess, Ms. Barnes and Ms. Clements. They were wrong to laugh at what happened to you, but we investigated and found zero evidence that they were involved in the planning or execution of that prank was found. We are not going to rehash what happened in January. We're going to talk about what happened today. Now, which one of you wants to go first?"

James looked to me. I didn't really want to be the one to tell the story. Unfortunately, this was my problem and I sucked him into it. I had to speak up. "If by bad blood, you mean they've been bullying me for the past year and a half, then yes, there is bad blood between us. Today they pulled one of their usual tricks. Emma, Sophia, Madison and a bunch of their friends cornered me and started insulting me –"

"Cornered you, Ms. Herbert? Did they grab you? Were you restrained?"

"It's Hebert. Not Herbert." It was a very common mistake, but I'd prefer it if my judge, jury and executioner at least knew my damn name. "They weren't holding me in place if that's what you mean. But I would have had to push my way through to get past. I was surrounded."

"I see." Her tone made her words a lie. "Continue."

"Emma said something especially hurtful…" Damn it. Merely saying 'cry for a week' doesn't express it. "We were friends once… She… knows how to twist the knife. She used a personal confidence against me. I was crying, and that's when James came up. He tried to help, and Sophia took exception and tried to punch him, but she missed." Words came easier now that it was about the fight. "Then Emma attacked James from behind. I pushed her aside. Tiffany tried to claw my face, and I spun her away. Then several others attacked me and I defended myself."

"Pushed her aside? Spun her away? Defended yourself? Rather vague answers. I have nine injured girls and neither of you seem hurt at all. What did you do to them?"

Great. Better to admit to martial arts. She might think powers otherwise. "I threw them. I used Aikido. I've been studying some self-defense."

"Where at?" asked Blackwell.

Huh? "We were in the hallway outside of Mr. Gladly's class. In fact, you can ask him. He saw me surrounded by all the girls and did nothing."

Blackwell scribbled something down. "I'll be sure to ask Mr. Gladly, but what I meant was where have you been studying self-defense? I may want to have a word with your instructor about how you're using his lessons."

"Oh. I don't have a sensei. I've been learning on my own. Just out of a book." Honestly, it was the truth! I did learn it from a book.

Blackwell didn't look like she believed me. "Mr. Barron, do you know Aikido as well?"

James shook his head. "Nothing so nice. Taylor's happy moving attackers aside. I'm a bit more direct. Sophia tried to hit me. I just... did it better than her." His words have a simmer of anger to them, but he's holding back and not letting them boil over.

"So let me summarize:. I have two students that claim that after an exchange of taunts Ms. Hess attacked first, missed, and then all the other girls also attacked first. None of them hurt you two at all, but you injured all of them. Do I have your version correct?"

Why was I bothering? "You twisted our words around, but mostly."

"Do tell. How did I twist them?"

I crossed my arms. What was the point?

James jumped in. "Taylor was crying when I arrived. They had her surrounded and Sophia had her foot on Taylor's bag. Deliberately. They've been attacking her every day for months and you and the teachers never do anything! We told you what happened in January. You ignored us then, and now you're trying to make today sound like our fault. You're just another bully, like them."

"Mr. Barron, you will talk to me in a respectful tone. This is your chance to tell your side of things. If you raise your voice again, I'll decide based on the facts I already have in hand. You won't like that result, either one of you. Now, to address your point, if there has been months of bullying, why am I just now hearing about it?"

"I. Have not. Raised. My. Voice. Yet. If you would like me to raise my voice, I'd be happy to demonstrate the difference." James paused and took a deep breath. "What facts? You've only spoken to those liars so far. And did you say you're only hearing about the bullying now? That's a bald-faced lie. I was in this... very office, three months ago, telling you about the locker. Or have you forgotten all about that?" asked James. He wasn't yelling, but there was a lot of snark in his reply.

"We did increase our observation of Ms. Hebert following that incident. No bullying was reported to me."

"I have a journal," I blurted out. "Dates, times, email addresses from hate mails, even photographs of bruises going back to the start of this school year."

There was a twist Blackwell's face. That struck some kind of nerve, but what? "Ms. Hebert, that won't impact what I will decide today. Documentation like that is good, but you should have been bringing it to the attention of the faculty from the moment it started. There is an escalation path that we have to follow: teaching warning, office referral, parent conferences. All of those can prevent things from getting to the sad state they did today. By not involving us earlier, you've made a difficult situation worse. If you'll bring them in, we'll review the incidents, but it's going to be difficult to prove your allegations months after the events. You'll have to start at square one."

Make it our fault, James had said. He was so right. "I did try to tell at first. No one listened. No one took action. They always took their side." Just like Mr. Gladly did today.

"I can assure you, Ms. Hebert, if you make official complaints in writing to the office, they will not be ignored."

Really? Like this one wasn't being ignored?

"Got a pen I can borrow?" asked James.

"We aren't discussing that issue at this time, Mr. Baron. Do you have anything to add in your defense?"

"Yeah. Do your job. If people are allowed to hit me, I'm allowed to hit them back. If those... girls are allowed to attack Taylor, she shouldn't have to just stand there and let them."

"Anything you would like to add, Ms. Hebert?"

I shrugged. "No." This was a kangaroo court. No point in drawing it out.

"Very well. I have nine witnesses that claim that Ms. Hebert was unwelcome and asked to leave and didn't." A snort from James drew her attention to him. "The same witnesses say that you struck Ms. Hess first, and then Ms. Hebert shoved Ms. Barnes. I have visible injuries on eight of the nine girls. Both sides have made more severe allegations, but this is America, and here at Winslow we assign punishments based on evidence. The other nine girls will all be suspended for a day. Before you argue about this being a token punishment, this can impact their eligibility for extra-curricular activities."

"So Sophia might not be able to compete in track?" Yeah, pull the other one. "I'll believe that when I see it."

Blackwell just continued as if I hadn't said a word. "You two, as the instigators, are suspended for a week. That's not optional on my part. We have too much gang activity here. I will not tolerate fighting in my school. When you return, I'll be glad to look at this journal, Ms. Hebert. I don't tolerate bullying either, but I do demand evidence. Do you two understand?"

"Yes." I understood quite well. Nine little liars banding together trumped two students telling the truth.

"…Yes." James sounded as sulky as I felt.

"Then you're dismissed. Go see Alice and she'll give you the paperwork for your suspension. Make sure you have it signed by your parents. Alice will also be calling them this afternoon."

I stood and shrugged at James and we both filed out. It sucked, but honestly was about what I expected from Winslow. I kept my mouth shut beyond the minimum needed to get the forms. James and I could talk later, about a lot of things. Winslow was one of them. It was clear they didn't want either of us, and frankly that was fine with me.

As we walked out of the building, I whispered to James, "Sorry that I dragged you into that."

"Don't be. It's not _your_ fault."

«New Quest Alert: Bring Justice to Winslow»  
«Reveal Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess and Madison Clements as the lying bullies they are.»  
«Reward: 10,000 XP, Increased reputation with Winslow Staff and Winslow Students, matching piece of equipment, and the satisfaction of justice being done.»  
«Failure: Humiliation, injury, criminal charges, and/or loss of reputation with Winslow Staff and Winslow Students»  
«Bonus Goals: Reveal the complicity of Winslow Staff »  
«Bonus Reward: 10,000 XP, Increased reputation with ?, Increased relationship with ?»  
«Accept?»  
«Yes» «No»

"Oh hell yes!" I grinned at James. "Tell me you got that quest, too."


	37. Factions 4-3

Factions 4.3 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission. This chapter starts halfway through Guild Invites 4.5

* * *

 **Factions 4.3**

It goes without saying that I hate being in the principal's office. It doesn't help that I just got a notice that Blackwell considers me a «Troublemaker». Kinda suspected, but didn't know. Think I preferred it that way.

Principal Blackwell is tall and thin and wears all black with one of those bowl cuts that look wrong on either gender. Dirty blonde is the worst color for… okay, red would be worse. Still, it's bad. Her office matches her style. It's stark, black, and ugly. The chairs aren't exactly friendly either. Right angles don't make for good posture, just uncomfortable sitting.

As I try futilely to find a comfortable position, Blackwell just leaves her comfortable looking leather office chair vacant. "Ms. Hebert, I need to search you before we begin."

Uh, what? "What? Why?"

"I'm not required to give a reason. Please hand me your backpack and remove the jacket."

Not 'required' to give a reason? At least that much is bullshit, and I'm not letting her get away with it. "I don't believe you. Lockers are one thing; they're school property. Taylor's backpack is her private property. Without reasonable cause, you have no right to search her property." She starts to say something, but I'm well aware of what most 'authority figures' say when I question them. "And, no, I am _not_ taking your word for it. Taylor shouldn't either."

"It's alright, James. I have nothing to hide." But that's not the point! Taylor just hands over her backpack like this isn't… gah! And Blackwell doesn't just rifle through her things, she empties it out on her desk, inspects every single item, then just leaves it spread out on her desk. At least there wasn't anything interesting in there. Well, other than what looks like an art assignment. Not bad.

"Please stand. I'm going to do a pat down search as well."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're not a cop. You can't just search students for no reason." She'd better not be planning to pull this crap on me next. Even teenage hormones can't make getting felt up by her appealing. "A pat down? That's just wrong. We have rights in this country."

She's frowning at me like _I'm_ the one doing something wrong. "Mr. Barron, if read your student handbook that you signed," I don't recall getting one, but Mom did have me sign a few things at the start of the school year, "you'll find that faculty have broad powers of discretion. Numerous court decisions support that. All that I am required to have is a reasonable suspicion," which you haven't told us yet, "which in this case I have." In this case? As opposed to other occasions? "Ms. Hebert, there have been allegations that you have drugs in your possession." Fucking Trio. "If you're innocent, it is in your best interest to have this allegation addressed. Now, you can either submit to a pat down search by me, or I can have the resource officer and the school nurse perform a strip search in the infirmary. Which do you prefer?"

Fucking bullshit. I'll be looking this crap up as soon as I can. Taylor doesn't deserve this, I _really_ don't think anything those bitches said counts as 'reasonable suspicion', and this is _completely_ ruining any future fantasies involving frisking.

"I'll take the pat down. I have nothing to hide." Taylor twitches slightly.

"Thank you for your cooperative attitude, Ms. Hebert. Mr. Barron, could I ask you to turn and face the wall please?"

Face the wall? Seriously? I'm at least certain she isn't supposed to do this with _any_ male in the room, and she's supposed to have a witness that she doesn't do anything untoward. But Taylor isn't protesting, so I sigh and turn. Who chooses charcoal paint for a room they're going to be in all day? It's really boring. And making it difficult to ignore rustling noises.

"Turn out your pockets, please." Blackwell sounds like she's found something.

"Two hundred and ten dollars, in tens. Freshly pressed, but non-sequential. That's an awful lot of money to be carrying to school." Crap. Taylor has to stash things in real space. That much money does look suspicious. There's a pause before Blackwell presses on. "Care to explain why you're carrying so much cash, Ms. Hebert?"

"I planned to go shopping after school." Taylor is on the ball.

"You can put away your backpack and your cash. I recommend you don't bring that kind of cash to Winslow again. Students have been knifed for less money." I gape at the wall. If you know how bad it is out there, do something about it! It's your damn job!

"You can turn around, James." Taylor is still a little red-faced when I finish resettling. She doesn't deserve to be treated this way.

Blackwell finally sits. She's still focused on Taylor. "So this will be the first time in my office for both of you," No, it isn't, "but not the first incident between you, James, and the three young ladies who just left. I would think you," now she's looking at me, "and Miss Clements had learned your lesson about fighting from your last altercation."

Seriously? She attacked me for trying to help her victim. Everyone knows now that Taylor was in the locker, but she's still acting like that was a fight? Seriously? I just… I… Fuck it. "I didn't start it then, and I didn't start it today." I'd say «Gamer's Mind» was keeping me even, but this is just how I try to handle arguments: be oppressively rational, no matter what.

«Self-control causes your WIS to go up by 1!»

"I haven't been here before, Principal Blackwell, but you've spoken to my father before. Or have you completely forgotten the locker incident where the three…" Taylor pauses, clearly censoring herself, "girls that just left your office shut me in my locker and left me to rot in a pile of human waste?"

Oh, look, Blackwell is trying to stare down Taylor. That's funny. "I clearly haven't forgotten that incident. I just referenced it. It is plain to me that there is bad blood between the two of you and Ms. Hess, Ms. Barnes, and Ms. Clements." She's acknowledging it now? "They were wrong to laugh at what happened to you," Wait, what? Is that the story now? "but we investigated," doubt it, "and found zero evidence that they were involved in the planning or execution of that prank was found." Prank? ...unlawful confinement, assault to put her there in the first place, whatever legal term applies to biohazardous waste… If that's a prank, Noah really only needed a mop. "We are not going to rehash what happened in January. We're going to talk about what happened today. Now, which one of you wants to go first?"

What am I supposed to say? 'Crazy bitch was going to punch me, so I punched her first'? Taylor jumps in quickly. "If by bad blood, you mean they've been bullying me for the past year and a half, then yes, there is bad blood between us. Today they pulled one of their usual tricks. Emma, Sophia, and Madison and a bunch of their friends cornered me and started insulting me -"

Blackwell interrupts, "Cornered you, Ms. Herbert? Did they grab you? Were you restrained?" She said 'cornered', you idiot. It was hard enough for me to get past them, and they weren't focused on me. ...did she just say 'HER-bert'? She got it right a moment ago, didn't she?

"It's Hebert. Not Herbert. They weren't holding me in place if that's what you mean. But I would have had to push my way through to get past. I was surrounded." And if she had, they would say _she_ attacked _them_.

"I see," said the willfully blind woman. "Continue."

"Emma said something especially hurtful…" Taylor pauses to rephrase. "We were friends once… She… knows how to twist the knife. She used a personal confidence against me. I was crying," remind me to speak with Emma about that later… "And that's when James came up. He tried to help, and Sophia took exception and tried to punch him, but she missed." Sure, let's call it that. "Then Emma attacked James from behind. I pushed her aside." Oh, that's what that was. Thanks, Taylor. "Tiffany tried to claw my face, and I spun her away. Then several others attacked me and I defended myself."

Our ignoble principal is skeptical. "Pushed her aside? Spun her away? Defended yourself?" Okay, self-defense has never sounded so unacceptable before. "Rather vague answers. I have nine injured girls and neither of you seem hurt at all." Not my fault I don't show wounds and Taylor is awesome. "What did you do to them?"

Kicked their bullying asses? "I threw them. I used Aikido. I've been studying some self-defense."

"Where at?" Please have a good answer, Taylor.

"We were in the hallway outside Mr. Gladly's class." Um… "In fact, you can ask him. He saw me surrounded by all the girls and did nothing." Really? I already thought he was a poor teacher, but this is news…

"I'll be sure to ask Mr. Gladly," Blackwell writes a quick note, "but what I meant was where have you been studying self-defense? I may want to have a word with your instructor about how you've been using his lessons." Come to think of it, I kinda count as her teacher, in a roundabout way. So I guess her instructor approves. Like any decent human should.

"Oh, I don't have a sensei. I've been learning on my own. Just out of a book."

That really doesn't sound convincing, given how much ass she kicked. "Mr. Barron, do you know Aikido as well?"

"Nothing so nice. Taylor's happy moving attackers aside." Hint that Taylor was being gentle. I almost admit to «Jeet Kune Do», but someone might eventually connect the dots. "I'm a bit more direct. Sophia tried to hit me. I just…" Don't say hit her first, "did it better than her." Seriously, self-defense. Not a crime.

"So let me summarize: I have two students that claim that after an exchange of taunts Ms. Hess attacked first, missed, and then all the other girls also attacked first. None of them hurt you two at all, but you injured all of them. Do I have your version correct?" Our _version_? This is worse than trying to explain Madison to Mom.

"You twisted our words around, but mostly."

"Do tell." Has anyone ever used that phrase without being condescending? "How did I twist them?"

Taylor closes off, gives up. She might have a weakness to bullies (which clearly includes Blackheart here), but I don't. I tighten the reins on my voice, she's not getting any excuse to discount what I say now. "Taylor was _crying_ when I arrived. They had her surrounded and Sophia had her foot on Taylor's bag." Just in case she tries to ignore that… "Deliberately. They've been attacking her every day for months and _you_ and the teachers never do _anything_! We told you what happened in January. You ignored us then, and now you're trying to make today sound like our fault. You're just another bully, like them."

"Mr. Barron, you will talk to me in a respectful tone." Respect is earned, and you're not exactly doing any of that now. "This is your chance to tell your side of things. If you raise your voice again, I'll decide based on the facts I already have in hand." Is that a threat? "You won't like that result, either one of you." Did she just try to use Taylor as leverage against me? "Now, to address your point, if there has been months of bullying, why am I just now hearing about it?"

«Gamer's Mind» keeps me from exploding, but leaves me with access to my full scorn for this. "I. Have not. Raised. My. Voice. Yet. If you would like me to raise my voice, I'd be happy to demonstrate the difference." Okay, that's a little too controlled. Deep breath. "What facts? You've only spoken to those liars so far. And did you say you're only hearing about the bullying now? That's a bald-faced lie. I was in this…" fucking. "Very office, three months ago, telling you about the locker." With a broken collarbone, because you wouldn't let anyone call my parents or an ambulance until things were 'sorted out'. "Or have you forgotten all about that?" Because I sure haven't.

«A skill has been created through a special action.»  
«A skill to frighten your opponents or get them to act in a way that benefits you, [Intimidate], as been created.»  
«Intimidate (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0% 10 MP»  
«+10% to intimidation rolls. Circumstantial and gear bonuses may apply.»  
«Requires a verbal threat or display of prowess. Targets must make a save vs. fear.»  
« _Now who's going to clean up that puddle?_ »

"We did increase our observation of Ms. Hebert following that incident." Increase? "No bullying was reported to me." Either she's a lying liar that lies, or someone else is covering things up.

Taylor positively blurts out: "I have a journal. Dates, times, email addresses from hate mails, even photographs of bruises going back to the start of this school year." That's… very thorough. And I didn't know about the hate mail. What the actual fuck is wrong with those girls?

Blackheart makes a face, but only for a moment. I bet she didn't expect that. "Ms. Hebert, that won't impact what I will decide today. Documentation like that is good, but you should have been bringing it to the attention of the faculty from the moment it started, There is an escalation path we have to follow: teaching warning, office referral, parent conferences. All of those can prevent things from getting to the sad state they did today. By not involving us earlier, you've made a difficult situation worse." Did she just blame us? "If you'll bring them in, we'll review the incidents, but it's going to be difficult to prove an allegation months after the events. You'll have to start at square one." She's… she's trying to talk Taylor out of proving things by discrediting everything she's done so far.

"I did try to tell at first. No one listened. No one took action. They always took their side." Taylor looks so hurt, I kinda want to hug her. Of course, I'm sure Blackheart here would say that's against the rules somehow.

The principal is completely unsympathetic. "I can assure you, Ms. Hebert, if you make official complaints in writing to the office, they will not be ignored."

Well, if you're going to give me that kind of an opening… "Got a pen I can borrow?"

"We aren't discussing that issue at this time, Mr. Barron." Actually, yeah. We kinda were. "Do you have anything to add in your defense?"

I've got tons of things I'd like to say, but none she'd like to hear. Still, she just handed me that opening. "Yeah. Do your job. If people are allowed to hit me, I'm allowed to hit them back. If those…" bitches, "girls are allowed to attack Taylor, she shouldn't have to just stand there and let them."

«Intimidate's level increases by 1!»

"Anything you would like to add, Ms. Hebert?"

Taylor shrugs the shrug of the truly fed-up. "No."

"Very well. I have nine witnesses that claim that Ms. Hebert was unwelcome and asked to leave and didn't." What do you know, no reflexive snort. I do one on purpose. "The same witnesses say that you struck Ms. Hess first, and then Ms. Hebert shoved Ms. Barnes. I have visible injuries on eight of the nine girls. Both sides have made more severe allegations, but this is America, and here at Winslow we assign punishments based on evidence." What 'evidence'? "The other nine girls will all be suspended for a day. Before you argue about this being a token punishment, this can impact their eligibility for extracurricular activities."

"So Sophia might not be able to compete in track? I'll believe it when I see it," Taylor's skeptical. Good. I wouldn't believe this woman if she told me Scion saves lives, let alone that she'd ever actually punish her star runner.

If Justice is blind, her delinquent kid sister, Injustice, is deaf. Blackwell completely ignores Taylor. "You two, as the instigators, are suspended for a week." Fu- wait, it's not really that bad. I hear they won't even count any assignments from that week as late. This just gives me a week of morning training sessions. Unless my parents find out. Grounding is one thing, no one will notice if I'm not actually sulking in my room. And that's with me sharing a bedroom. But if I don't have school, Mom will probably insist on having me spend the day in her office. "That's not optional on my part. We have too much gang activity here. I will not tolerate fighting in my school. When you return, I'll be glad to look at this journal, Ms. Hebert. I don't tolerate bullying either, but I demand evidence." Unless the accusation is made by her pet psychopaths. "Do you two understand?"

"Yes." Taylor packs a _lot_ of meaning into one word.

There's so much more I want to say, but there's no point. Nothing I can do now. "...Yes."

Blackwell seems satisfied by that. "Then you're dismissed. Go see Alice and she'll give you the paperwork for your suspension. Make sure you have it signed by your parents." I can probably forge that. Might get a skill out of it... "Alice will be calling them this afternoon." F-f-fuck. She pointedly ignores us, swiveling to her computer.

Taylor leads the way out. The only stop between us and freedom is grabbing our suspension forms. Paperwork, for being punished. Recursively evil.

I'm just taking a moment to appreciate the freedom in the air when Taylor whispers sideways, "Sorry that I dragged you into that."

"Don't be. It's not _your_ fault." It's more my fault than hers. And it's not really my fault either. Even if I did punch Sophia.

«New Quest Alert: Bring Justice to Winslow»  
«Reveal Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess and Madison Clements as the lying bullies they are.»  
«Reward: 10,000 XP, Increased reputation with Winslow Staff and Winslow Students, matching piece of equipment, and the satisfaction of justice being done.»  
«Failure: Humiliation, injury, criminal charges, and/or loss of reputation with Winslow Staff and Winslow Students»  
«Bonus Goals: Reveal the complicity of Winslow Staff »  
«Bonus Reward: 10,000 XP, Increased reputation with ?, Increased relationship with ?»  
«Accept?»  
«Yes» «No»

"Oh hell yes! Tell me you got that quest, too." There's that grin again. I'm glad my power can help in this way, along with everything else.

"Now that's my kind of quest. We should go somewhere private and plan out how to finish it."

I've known Taylor for years. I'd forgotten just how wide her mouth is. Just one of the things you get used to, I guess. But right now, she's beaming in a way most faces couldn't handle. "Let's go to my place. My dad shouldn't be home for at least a few more hours. I'll even «Cook», I got a skill for it earlier."

"Nice." Considering just how absurd these skills get… "Well, if you want help grinding that up, I'd be happy to lend you my stomach."

"Speaking of new skills, I got «Sprint» this morning."

I love my power. "Race you?" Taylor beats me by a second, but the two levels I earn on «Sprint» is more than enough consolation prize for me.

..ooOoo..

The first visit to someone's house is always awkward. Especially when the only other person there has abandoned me in the living room while she cooks lunch. I don't know what I'm allowed to touch, there's no one to talk to, and I don't know where the restroom is. Not exactly a pressing need or anything, but I like to know where it is. I only last a minute or two before following Taylor to the kitchen. She's carefully scooping tomatoes out of a pot of boiling water with a wooden spoon and peeling them.

"So, I've been thinking. We've each got a couple hundred to burn; how about we go shopping after lunch? We could both use a «First Aid» skill and «Parkour» seems like an essential skill for any cape who can't fly. And who knows what else we might find?" On a whim, I start retrieving the tomatoes with my bare hands. «-14 HP» Ow. This may not have been my best idea. «-14 HP»

"What are you doing?!" Taylor's shock takes me a moment to process.

"«Elemental Resistance» training?" A pop-up tells me it's working.

She rolls her eyes. "Try not to do something like that around other people." She starts pulping the skinned tomatoes, then pauses. "That's just not fair. If I trained like that, I'd be lucky to just burn my hands and put myself out of action for days." She gives that a moment to sink in before changing the topic. "Don't forget the skill cap. We're going to have to be selective about what skills we get. Like this," she gestures at the red pulp before scrapping it into a saucepan. "«Cooking» isn't a bad skill, but I don't want all my INT going to housewife skills. No matter how useful they are."

"I've still got about ten left, but I get your point. Maybe we should take turns trying out different chores. See which chores are safe to do and which skills are worth earning? And if one of us finds anything useless, the other can just avoid it. I'll even go first."

"That's not a bad idea. You can start with the dishes."

* * *

Game stats: «+2 Intimidate», «+2 Sprint», «+Elemental Resistance», «+1 WIS»


	38. Guild Invites 4-6

Guild Invites 4.6

I grinned like a fool at James when he confirmed that he also had the Bring Justice to Winslow quest. He had a mischievous look to him as he suggested we go somewhere and plan how to carry it out.

That suited me just fine. "Let's go to my place. My dad shouldn't be home for at least a few more hours. I'll even «Cook», I got a skill for it earlier."

"Nice. Well, if you want help grinding that up, I'd be happy to lend you my stomach."

It was a typical James joke, corny and lame, but I giggled anyway. A week of suspension was supposed to be a punishment, but leaving Winslow felt like being let out of prison. That place was nothing but a millstone around my neck. A bright yellow sun shone down from a blue sky. Spring had come to Brockton Bay: green grass, flowers in bloom, and bugs everywhere. I let down my mental wall and embraced all the bugs in my area. It felt good to feel my millions of minions again. I felt almost blind without them and immediately tasked bugs to establish my «Combat Mapping».

I felt like showing off. "Speaking of new skills, I got «Sprint» this morning." I said it with a teasing challenge hoping James would rise to the bait.

He took it hook, line and sinker. "Race you?"

"You're on!" I took off leaving him to catch up. I left James in my dust at first, but I might have pushed myself a little too hard earlier that morning. My legs started complaining before I'd even gone a block. I pushed through the pain at first determined not to lose, but I just couldn't maintain the pace. I slowed down to a jog for a bit as I had a lead, only for James to rapidly catch up with me. I kicked it back up to a sprint and pushed through and only barely beat him. Even better, I got «Sprint 3» out of our little impromptu race.

"We. Need. A rematch. When my. Legs aren't. Sore," I panted out. "One moment, gotta stretch. Legs already killing me." I shuffled off my backpack and hoodie and did some leg stretches while I cooled down. I also woke up my spiders in the basement and set them to work weaving and repairing my costume. After staring around cluelessly for a bit, James stretched as well.

"That will have to do. Come on in. Watch the second step."

I headed into the house to cook. James didn't follow immediately, which gave me time to browse through our fridge and pantry. We just didn't have much in the way of vegetarian friendly food. Spaghetti and a salad it would have to be. While I had always used a canned of tomato sauce as a base, I took out a pot of water and started boiling some tomatoes without really thinking about it. I knew what I was doing – making spaghetti sauce from raw ingredients, and I even knew where it came from: «Cooking» and the [Spaghetti] recipe. I should probably have been disturbed about how new skills snuck up on me. That's how I'd jumped into a fight with «Aikido» and probably why James jumped into a fight with his «Jeet Kune Do», but the coolness factor of knowing how to cook like this overrode any creepiness I felt. I considered turning on the radio to sing along, but decided that might be rude.

My tomatoes had just boiled enough when James entered the kitchen. "So, I've been thinking. We've each got a couple hundred to burn; how about we go shopping after lunch? We could both use a «First Aid» skill and «Parkour» seems like an essential skill for any cape who can't fly. And who knows what else we might find?"

I nodded my agreement as I fished the tomatoes out of the pot. That was a good idea. A bookstore trip was certainly on list for today, but before I could respond James stuck his hands into the boiling water and grabbed the last of the tomatoes. What the fuck? "What are you doing?"

"«Elemental Resistance» training?"

Oh, right brute rating and regeneration. I wanted to tell him not to scare me like that, but that sounded too much like my father lecturing me. I settled for an eyeroll. "Try not to do something like that around other people." And when exactly did he pick up «Elemental Resistance»? Probably the Lung fight by getting hit by fire. A process that I couldn't repeat.

"That's just not fair. If I trained like that, I'd be lucky to just burn my hands and put myself out of action for days." Although I cheated in my own way by training multiple skills at once whenever I could. However, speaking of skills brought up another point. "Don't forget the skill cap. We're going to have to be selective about what skills we get. Like this." I pointed to the red pulp of former tomatoes that and scraped them into a pot. "«Cooking» isn't a bad skill." In fact I rather enjoyed it. "But, I don't want all my INT going to housewife skills. No matter how useful they are."

"I've still got about ten left, but I get your point. Maybe we should take turns trying out different chores. See which chores are safe to do and which skills are worth earning? And if one of us finds anything useless, the other can just avoid it. I'll even go first."

I grinned at him. "That's not a bad idea. You can start with the dishes." After all that was the way it worked. Whoever cooked didn't have to do the dishes. I added some seasoning to the sauce, knowing it wasn't right. I should be using fresh onion and garlic instead of powdered. For best flavor it should also simmer a lot longer than I wanted to spend waiting on it. Still James and I had a lot to talk about, plus I wanted to make a salad. I put it on medium heat and started prepping a simple garden salad for us: iceberg lettuce, cucumber slices, and cherry tomatoes.

The salad didn't take much of my concentration. So, what to discuss first? How about Winslow? "Hey, speaking of skills. I had a revelation today. With your power high school has just become irrelevant to both of us."

"How's that? We still kinda need diplomas."

"Just that we can get more than a high school education in a few weeks by memorizing the right books. I already know more about «Computer Programming» by downloading that book than I'll learn in Ms. Knott's entire class. I'm sure we could find skill books to cover our other courses." As I spoke I shredded the iceberg lettuce into a serving bowl.

"Huh." When James had an opinion, he wasn't shy about sharing it. This time he seemed to consider what I said before replying. "I'm not sure about the skill books. None of my text books are skill books, and I received a quest that gave me the «Biology» skill today."

I shrugged. "But we know we can learn «Anatomy 25» from Gray's Anatomy." And I suddenly realized that I was discussing «Anatomy» and gesturing with a cucumber. I felt my cheeks heat a bit and quickly started slicing the cucumber. My hands used the knife with a surety that I've never had in the kitchen before. In seconds the cucumber was rendered into slices. The slices weren't as thin or as even as they should be, but that was still pretty cool.

"You've got a point, but «Anatomy» and «Biology» aren't exactly the same thing. And some classes might take more than one skill. Who knows how many we'd need to cover everything. Beyond that, we'd still need to go to school."

"Do we? What good is it doing us? Why don't we just drop out? Pick up the skills to cover our classes, level them up, then take our GEDs. At the rate we're increasing skills we don't need Winslow. It's not like I'm getting an education there anyway." I gave the sauce a stir. It was thickening but remained a little too watery. I also didn't seem to be convincing him. "James, Winslow is holding us back. Think of how much we learned in two days. What if we could do that every day? What kind of heroes would we become?"

"Oh yeah." James sounded like he's seen the light. "Can we even drop out? Don't we have to be seventeen?"

"Like Winslow would care. I'm sure we can find a home school program or something to cover us."

«An item has been created via [Cooking].»  
«Garden Salad»  
«Rank: Low; Type: Consumable Item»

Alright, so it was a simple salad, but I didn't think it was that bad. I checked my sauce. Close enough. I ducked down to grab the big pot from under the counter.

"You're probably right about that. I bet the PRT could give us some options when we join the Wards."

I almost bonked my head on the cabinet when James said that. What the fuck? Luckily he couldn't see my face. I grabbed the pot I wanted, dropped it in the sink, and started filling it with water. Only then did I turn to face James. "What did you mean, _when_ we join the Wards?"

James shrugged. "After Lung, I thought you'd be all for it. We nearly died. Hell, I was under 10 HP at one point. We'd be safer with a team backing us up."

Could have died. That's what my father had kept saying. Miss Militia got me to admit it as well, but hearing it from James hurt more. Less than 10 HP? That was less than a zombie punch from zero. Neither of us knew what happened to James at 0 HP. Would he be unconscious or dead? It was still too damn close. Maybe I was the crazy one. My pot was full of water. I took it from the sink, placed it on the stove, and cranked up the heat. "We need to be more careful, but that doesn't mean joining a team. Not necessarily. You have «ID Create». We can run from any fight that turns bad. Also if we spend a few weeks training up, we'd be better heroes. We don't need the Wards."

"We'd still have those advantages, plus teammates if we joined."

I paused to stir my sauce. I hadn't expected this. I thought he understood the danger, but he didn't seem concerned. "Have you forgotten what we talked about? Once you join the Wards, the Protectorate will learn how your powers work. They'll use you to power up their other capes."

"Probably." His lack of concern betrayed that he knew, but he didn't really understand. "We're kinda already doing that. And helping out the Wards feels like the right thing to do."

"If they let you stay here with the Wards." Like the water I had on the stove, my temperature rose, but I tried to stay calm. "James, they might take you away."

"Maybe, but it's not like they're Empire Eighty-Eight or the ABB. They're the good guys. Besides, I've got my Illusion Barriers. I bet that I could get away if I really had to."

I couldn't believe we were having this discussion again. What had happened to 'You're the boss, Taylor'? "Did you forget last night already? The Protectorate is led by people like Armsmaster. He didn't listen to us at all. What makes you think it will be different. People in power – they don't really care about people like us, James. Why do you think I'm ignored at Winslow? They'll use you up." And I won't be able to save you.

James held his hands up defensively. "Honestly, I think you're overreacting a bit. They can't all be that bad. But I get it. I get it why you don't trust people in authority. So no Wards. At least not yet."

"Well. Good." Although it wasn't really good. James had conceded; he hadn't been convinced. I'd thought we were in synch, but clearly we weren't. If I didn't give in and agree to join the Wards, would I lose him as a friend? But, I didn't trust the Protectorate to do right by James. On the other hand, was I being selfish brat? Was I just using him for my benefit and didn't want to share? Under 10 HP. James had almost _died_. Multitasking is really the best part of my power, even better than bug control, because while I fretted another part of me tended the spaghetti, took it, drained, served and added sauce.

«An item has been created via [Cooking].»  
«Spaghetti»  
«Rank: Low; Type: Consumable Item»

«Your skill in [Cooking] has increased by 1.»

Rank low again. I suppose that's what I got for ignoring what my «Cooking» skill tried to tell me about adding more ingredients especially meat. Either meatballs or adding a little ground meat to the sauce would really enhance the flavor. Apparently my «Cooking» skill didn't do the vegetarian thing. Maybe I should try to pick up a vegetarian cookbook when we went shopping?

I pushed a plate toward James and forced a smile that I didn't feel. "It's simple, but I hope you like it."

"I'm sure that I will. It smells great."

We both ate in an awkward silence. This was my fault for being so anti-Wards. Maybe he was right. The quest did say we needed to join a team within two days, but right now we had the power and control. We could decide how we trained, when we went back out in costume again, everything was our choice. If we joined the Wards, then adults would be telling us what to do, and the adult in charge of the Protectorate ENE was Armsmaster. Hadn't last night proved he didn't listen? However, I'd 'won' the argument. I didn't want to open it up again. I needed to say something, anything, to change the subject and mend fences with James.

"So… I told my father about my powers." I offered it up hoping he'd take the conversational bait.

He did. "So, how did it go?"

"He freaked." Which wasn't good, but being able to talk about it with James felt good. "He basically told me we were stupid for fighting Lung. Didn't matter that we won. About the only thing he liked was that I've got the beginning of a partnership worked out with Parian. He really wants me to be a rogue rather than a hero."

James nodded a bit because he was chewing. "Ouch. At least you were able to tell one of your parents. I don't think my mom would take it well, and my dad would tell her sooner or later. So did you tell him about me?"

"I told him about Beetle Knight, but no details…" And clearly James didn't know. "It's just my dad. My mother passed away a couple of years ago. Automobile accident."

James winced. "Crap. I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

"No, it's okay." And we were back in Awkwardville, population two.

He suddenly froze. "Emma."

"What about her?" Why bring her up?

"That's what the «Treacherous Bitch» meant when she said 'cry for a week'. She was talking about... fuck."

My eyes suddenly felt moist, but I wasn't going to cry again. "Yes. Like I told Blackwell, she knows all my secrets and how to use them to hurt me the most."

"Dammit, calling her a supervillain was too nice. That was… inexcusable. Like Slaughterhouse 9 inexcusable. We're going to complete that quest and see that all three of them get what's coming to them. The bitches three are going to pay."

"Good." I finally felt like James and I were back in synch. "So got any ideas?"

"A few." James then outlined some possibilities. We could buy some small recording devices. We could try to involve some of the trio's other victims. Apparently I'd been a bit blind. James knew at least three other students on the trio's shit list. One of us could pick up a law/legal skill. Or we could call a lawyer. "Hey, do you mind if I look at that journal you mentioned?"

I felt a little ashamed at how easily James came up with several possibilities. Why hadn't I tried any of those? "I'll get it, and it's okay if you read it. I meant it as a weapon against them, but I don't want to discuss it, you know?"

James nodded. "I get it. How about I put it in my inventory and look at it later? No discussion, just want to know what we've got to work with."

I nodded. "Yeah. That might be best."

"And we should make copies and keep the original. I wouldn't put it past Blackwell to 'lose' it or claim she never got it in the first place."

"I could so see that happening. For that matter the trio have a talent for stealing things from my locker and my backpack. If they knew I had a journal of all their shit, they'd try to get their hands on it. I don't know if they'd go as far as breaking into my house, but I wouldn't put it past them. I know damn sure they can't steal it from your pocket dimension." I went upstairs to my room to fetch my journal. Saying I'd let James look at it was one thing. Once I had it in my hands and remembered all the humiliating things I'd written, it wasn't so easy. Also, it had been a waste of time. Almost everything James had suggested had a better chance of actually changing my life than keeping a secret journal. I headed back downstairs and found James up to his elbows in suds washing dishes.

"I was joking about the dishes."

"I wasn't." James flicked some suds at me. "You cooked. I've got the dishes. So, as soon as these are done, you want to go shop for books?"

"Um, maybe." Before I could say anything else the phone rang. I picked it up. "Hello, Hebert residence."

"Mrs. Hebert, I'm calling on behalf of Winslow High School. Your daughter was in an altercation today with other students and has been suspended for the remainder of the week. She has brought home a paper that you need to sign for us acknowledging her suspension."

I recognized the voice. It was the school secretary, who apparently didn't know my mother was dead. "Really? Well, you can be sure I'll have a word with her about that. I'll make sure the paper is signed. Thank you for calling." I hung up on her.

James sent a questioning look at me.

"Winslow. I'll tell my father, I guess. They'll probably call your home as well."

"Crap. Mind if we swing by my house on the way to the bookstore? I need to erase that message off the answering machine."

I shrugged. "You're not going to tell them?"

"Not if I don't have to. If my mom knows I'm not in school, she'll make me come with her to the office every day. That's just a waste of a week off school. Besides, didn't you want to get more training in?"

I grinned. Now that's the James I knew! "Detour to the Barron residence approved."

"Awesome." James set the last dish aside, and then stared at it. "Looks like it was a good thing that I did the dishes. I just got a «Dishwashing» skill."

"You're joking right?"

"Nope. «A technique to wash dishes. With greater mastery, you can clean any dirty spot. 5% increase in dish washing speed.»"

I sighed. "That sucks. And I thought «Knife Throwing» was a waste of a skill slot. I wish there was a way to decline a skill or get rid of them."

James wrung out the drying cloth and left it on the counter. "I'd rather have something more... generally useful, but I kinda like it. And there might be a way to drop skills. Some games let you respec. Usually ones that have some kind of perk tree have a way to let you reassign your perks. I'll see if it says something in the book."

"Book?" What book?

" _Beginner's Guide to The Gamer_ , I got it as a reward for completing the Tutorial."

And he was just now mentioning it? "That's…" Hey pot, this is kettle. You're black. "That's pretty important, but things have been busy. I've got a lot to fill you in on."

"Oh?" James looked interested. "Like what?"

"Let me see. My father wants to meet you – as Beetle Knight. Miss Militia wants to set up a time for both of us to meet the Wards. Tattletale wants to meet with both of us…" What else? "Oh, and I picked up some kind of earring loot from Lung and I have no clue what it does."

"Your father wants to meet… Beetle Knight?" He sounded awfully uncomfortable about that.

"Relax, we took down Lung. Surely, my father is less scary than a fire-breathing man-dragon?"

"I'm not sure about that."

I was pretty sure he was just hamming it up now. I rolled my eyes at him. Might as well have some fun. "I'll tell you about all those on the way to your house. Let me grab my costume first though." My bugs were done repairing it now. "Do you want to come see my basement workshop? Most people would probably find it creepy. I've got several thousand spiders down there spinning silk for me, and most of them are black widows."

James eyed the stairs leading down to the basement. "Sounds cool. Unless you've suddenly lost control of them." He smirked at me. "Lead the way, Lolth."

"Lolth?" I had the feeling I was missing some kind of geek-speak reference.

"Demon Queen of Spiders, Mother of the Drow, that Lolth." The smartass grin on James's face faded as he took in my workshop.

Not that I could really blame him. The basement in my house was gloomy to begin with. It's an old house and the basement was never renovated. So it was just gray concrete for walls and floors and exposed boards for a ceiling. Wires, ductwork and pipes were exposed. A washer and dryer sat up against the wall close to the bottom of the stairs. My father's abandoned workbench gathered dust beside it. In the corner an old furnace that had been converted from coal to gas slumbered. Stacks of boxes lined the walls. Many of them were filled with mom's old things that had been boxed up to be sorted out in some vague someday that had never come. However, my workshop was in full swing, which meant that I was running multiple 'production lines'. Some were making silk cords, others were making replacement skirt-nets in either orb-weaver gold or black-widow yellow-gray. I had them roughly divided among the various sides, but literally thousands of spiders were running up and down weaving at my command. In a way it was beautiful, but even with my powers I had to admit it was creepy as hell.

"Damn. This is impressive. Hail Lolth, Queen of the Demonweb Pits."

He could be such a goof. "Yes, yes, and you're making her majesty angry. Who is this Lolth person?"

James didn't seem at all bothered. "Lolth is a spider deity in D&D, the evil goddess that the Drow worship."

"I'm going to be sorry I asked, but what are Drow? Some kind of spider people?"

"Not quite. Drow are dark elves. Sometimes Lolth turns them into spider people called Driders, which are like spider centaurs. The Drow themselves are almost like the opposite of Lord of the Rings elves. Evil, black-skinned, white-haired, and kinda BDSM-y. Oh, and they're matriarchal. Women have all the power, men exist to serve them."

"Well, at least they got something right." And I was sorry that I asked. What relevance did an evil god have to us as capes? We needed to take down villains and bring three little bitches to justice.

"So… what do you have them making?"

Okay, it was rather cool that he wasn't creeped and I could show him stuff. "Well first off all, they made me these, three replacement skirt-nets and some silken cords so I can «Entangle» zombies again. Over there." I gestured to the long maypole dance of spiders. "Is another silken cord being woven. Strands to threads, threads to cords, and eventually cords to rope. Next time we fight Legion Zombie, I plan to have a rope with us."

"Next time?" He seemed to pause and think that over. "You know, that's a good idea. The loot was awesome, and it should be much easier to kill now. We already have a strategy that works and we leveled up a LOT from beating Lung. And we won't even have to sacrifice your skirts. How long until you have the rope done?"

It wasn't exactly easy to measure. Compared to making cloth rope was a snap, it just took a lot of silk and I didn't want to kill spiders by pushing them too hard. "I already had my spiders weaving this morning, they're pretty tapped out. They need several hours of rest to build their silk supplies back up. Probably two more production runs, one later today, one tomorrow and I'll have my rope. Another day if we want to play it safe and have two ropes."

He nodded. "Good call, boss, I'm all for playing it safe. Oh, and I've got other dungeons than just Zombies now. I think beating the Legion Zombie unlocked a Ghost dungeon and beating Lung gave me a Dragon Yakuza dungeon. Now that we know there are bosses, we don't want to kill too many at once, but we could give those a try."

"Really? Cool." That was something I could get behind. Doing the illusion barriers with James and building up our skills. "We'll need to be careful scouting them. Can we even hurt a ghost? Will they be intangible? Or more like floating jello? And they'll probably be higher level, won't they?" That's the way games worked. They kept adding harder and harder levels.

"Maybe? I'm not sure, but I think we can always run away as long as the boss hasn't shown up. And yeah, but higher level means better loot."

"Okay then. Checking them out definitely goes on our to-do list. Right after getting some skill books." I honestly didn't care about the loot for myself. It was mostly skill books, but those powered James up. I got levels and skills out of it, so it was all good in the end. I felt good to be back on firm ground with James and our tiff about the Wards forgotten. "Damn, we've got a lot to do today. I'll get these guys to wrap things up and we'll get moving."

"Okay, as long as I'm not one of the things they're wrapping up."

"Not unless you keep up the puns." Weaving threads wasn't something I could instantly put on hold, at least not if I wanted to be able to resume work easily. I directed my spiders to reach stopping places, hide the work in progress, and then return to their lairs. With «Lingering Command» I had a little bit of leeway, but I wanted to let a few of the maypole dances finish. "It will be just a few minutes. Plus we have a few things we can cross off the list." I went to my costume and retrieved the stuff I'd looted from Lung. "These are for you, I guess they're «Dragon Scales» and used for crafting. I don't know what this earring does."

James took them from me. "You're right, these are «Dragon Scales». They probably are used for «Crafting», but I don't have any blueprints yet. I'll keep them for now." James tossed them into his inventory. "As for this. «Observe». Nice. It's a «Dragonfang Earring», grants +25% Fire Resistance, and... it's yours." He held it out, trying to give it back to me.

I looked at it. "What do you mean it's mine?" The fire resistance sounded nice, but I didn't wear big dangly earrings. I wore plain little studs that I changed so rarely I often forgot I was even wearing them. Still, 25% Fire Resistance would have been damned useful against Lung. I could always wear it under my costume. "Are you sure?"

"Completely. You can't use the more... exotic skill books, so you've been kinda screwed over with the loot so far. And I just made myself some stuff from the blueprints the zombies dropped. Once we get in another run or two, I'll make you a set."

"Okay." I wasn't so sure about zombie armor. I thought mine was pretty good, but the earring wasn't worth a fight. I took it from him, and decided to hell with it. 25% Fire Resistance was useful, so I swapped it out for the stud in my right ear. "How's it look?" I didn't feel any different except for a little extra weight tugging at my ear.

James gave me a critical look. "Gives you a bit of a rebel look. I like it."

"Really?" Alright then. "Right. So… I think my spiders can close up from here. Let's get going to your house. We can walk this time. Got a lot go over. Speaking of which. What did you get from the book that Lung dropped?"

James dramatically slapped his head with his palm. "Doh. The book teaches «Dragon Scales», and I haven't learned it yet! I'm going to do that now. «Inventory»." He reached into nowhere and pulled out the book. He spent a few moments playing with screens I couldn't see. Then he grabbed the book and it dissolved in the book-chomp lightshow. Phantom wind blew his hair about but didn't bother any of my spider's webs in the slightest. James picked right back up talking. "It's kinda like «Zombie's Hide», but it gives more armor and has fire resistance instead of the others. And they can't stack. Which kinda sucks, but I'm not complaining."

I shoved my costume and bat into my backpack and headed out the door with James. We chatted on the way to his house. I mentioned the cleaning effect of putting things into inventory, and he tried to describe how «Crafting» worked. James agreed to show up at my house as Beetle Knight to meet my dad later, and I agreed that we should set up the meeting with the Wards as soon as possible. As for Tattletale he wanted to read her message before replying.

James unlocked the door when we arrived at his place. "We can use my family's computer, but we'll need to be quick." He walked on in and gestured. "So this is the Barron residence, don't mind the mess. Bathroom is at the end of the hall if you need it. I'm going to go clear the answering machine. Do you want water or anything?"

"No, I'm fine." James's family hadn't noticed that he'd stayed out all night long. He hadn't said why. This was my chance to… look around a bit.

It was the first time I'd been in anyone's home other than my own or rarely Gram's since Emma dumped me. This house reminded me a little bit of Gram's, particularly the upright piano that was obviously never actually played because it was covered in family photos and little porcelain dolls of children in cute poses. My dad called those kind of figurines dustcatchers. Mom would have approved of five bookcases in the living room filled with books, but she would have mixed feelings about the contents. There were two shelves of classics, but most of the space was filled with several sets of old encyclopedias, dictionaries, self-help books, various religious books, obscure paperbacks, a large collection of photo albums, and an old stereo system. The furniture all faced an entertainment center that was closed and locked. That struck me as odd. My parents had limited my time on the boob tube, but never physically locked it away. Was that normal?

My «Combat Mapping» added more detail. They owned a cat who was watching me from underneath the couch. The bedrooms were messy, not filthy, but just a little bit too much stuff to be stored away. There was an overflowing laundry basket in the hallway, and groceries stacked up on the kitchen tables. The main areas were clean, but there was a build-up of dust and cobwebs in the nooks and crannies. Altogether it made up a confusing picture. I couldn't really complain. My home was about the same. My father was tidy. He did the laundry and didn't tolerate things left out of place, but he didn't clean up like Mom used to. Nor did he make me do it. Was that normal as well? Houses in the real world didn't shine and sparkle like on TV. My bugs also informed me that James was heading back. So I turned to face him as he entered.

"Found a message from Winslow and took care of it." He seemed pleased about it. "So, um, computer this way in Wi- the library."

I followed him, trying not to be too obvious a snoop. It felt like something was wrong here. I just didn't know what and didn't feel like I had the right to pry. The library he led me to had an older model computer, more books, and lots of boxes filling up both levels of a bunkbed.

"It's password protected, if barely," announced James as he sat down in front of it. "But I think Dad uses this password elsewhere, so I'll log on, then we can swap and you can log onto PHO."

"We don't have to swap places. I trust you to have my back against Lung, so I think I can trust you with PHO account. It's Lady_Bug: capitol L, capitol B, underscore in-between. Password is Dickens with a capitol D."

"You really didn't have to tell me that." Despite saying that James was already opening a browser window and logging into PHO. "Why Dickens?"

For my mom. "Literary reference. _A Tale of Two Cities_. 'It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.' Seemed to fit how I felt about triggering."

"Oh. I did something similar with my user name. I should probably make a cape account later. And we're in. You've got a new message."

I leaned over James's shoulder and pushed my hair back in place as it fell forward over both of us. "Um, sorry."

"It's okay? So, Tattletale says she owes us two and wants to repay? We should take her up on it. I know she's a villain, but she's also a Thinker. She might have some ideas on paying back the bullies and a different perspective on trusting the Wards."

And James's interest had nothing to do with the fact she wore spandex. I could see a bit of blush on his face. "On the other hand, she's a Thinker. If we give her clues, she could quickly find our true identities."

"But she owes us. And if it's that easy for her to find us, she'll do it anyway. Isn't it better to keep things friendly, at least for now?"

I frowned. The problem was that Tattletale had been too damn friendly with James, but we could use the help. "Okay, go ahead and write her, but we don't give her any clues about how your powers work. Understand."

"Okay, but I'm not typing PMs for you. Swap."

"Fine." We swapped places and I dashed off quick messages to her and Miss Militia

Private message to AllSeeingEye  
Subject: Proposed Meet  
Repayment is not required, but we might have a few questions. Where and when did you want to meet?  
LB & BK

Private message to MissMilitia"  
Subject: Tomorrow?  
Miss Militia,  
I believe you were correct the other night. Beetle Knight and I had a lot of luck in capturing Lung. We are also both interested in meeting with the Wards. We have time available tomorrow. If you propose a time and place, we will be there. If tomorrow is too soon, let us know when would be better for you.  
Best Regards,  
Lady Bug (and Beetle Knight)

I was going to close out, but… "Weird. I have another message. Huh, Tattletale already replied."

Private message from AllSeeingEye  
Subject: Proposed Meet  
U can't dismiss a debt so easily. I'll meet you at the same spot we crossed paths last night, k? Don't have to get gussied up if you catch my drift. I'll be in casual wear. We could meet at 3. That will give you enough time to get there from your neighborhood with everything you need. Let me know.  
Tt

"How the fuck does she know how long it will take us to get there?" I asked.

"That's a good fucking question," replied James. "I guess the best way to find out is to meet her."


	39. Factions 4-4

Factions 4.4 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

 **Factions 4.4**

Taylor fiddles with the stove a bit before turning her attention to shredding some lettuce into a large bowl. "Hey, speaking of skills. I had a revelation today. With your power high school has just become irrelevant to both of us."

I've seen just what happens to the uneducated in this town, and if you want to go to college, you've got to... "How's that? We still kinda need diplomas."

"Just that we can get more than a high school education in a few weeks by memorizing the right books. I already know more about «Computer Programming» by downloading that book than I'll in learn Ms. Knott's entire class. I'm sure we could find skill books to cover our other courses."

"Huh." Guess that's true enough. I wouldn't exactly call Winslow educational. At least not in a traditional sense. But getting good grades and a scholarship (or two) is the only way I'll be able to afford college. Also, pretty sure the better colleges don't accept a GED. "I'm not sure about the skill books. None of my text books are skill books, and I received a quest that gave me the «Biology» skill today." Are ours books just shitty, or are some things easier to learn through practice? Come to think of it, does it really matter what college I go to? Attending a college in a different city might not mesh well with being a superhero and trying to maintain a secret identity.

Taylor moves on to washing a cucumber. "But we know we can learn «Anatomy 25» from Gray's Anatomy." She slices the cucumber rapidly. In context of «Anatomy», that's a little scary…

"You've got a point, but «Anatomy» and «Biology» aren't exactly the same thing." Biology class spends a lot of time on habitats and interspecies interactions. "And some classes might take more than one skill. Who knows how many we'd need to cover everything. Beyond that, we'd still need to go to school." Still need a scholarship. Money doesn't just… appear… from… nowhere. Huh. Guess it kinda does, for me at least.

"Do we?" Taylor turns the two words into the start of an impassioned plea. "What good is it doing us? Why don't we just drop out? Pick up the skills to cover our classes, level them up, then take our GEDs. At the rate we're increasing skills we don't need Winslow. It's not like I'm getting an education there anyway. James, Winslow is holding us back. Think of how much we learned in two days. What if we could do that everyday? What kind of heroes would we become?"

"Oh, yeah." No more wasted time at Winslow. Seven extra hours every day to train or fight crime. And I don't think there's a college in town that _doesn't_ accept GEDs. Probably cheaper that way, too. Just one problem. "Can we even drop out? Don't we have to be seventeen?" Don't think Mom would sign that paperwork for me.

"Like Winslow would care," she scoffs. "I'm sure we can find a home school program or something to cover it." The salad goes onto the table and Taylor bends to root around under the counter.

Hey oh! Let's check out that salad. Pretty simple, but that's the beauty of salads. "You're probably right about that. I bet the PRT could give us some options when we join the Wards."

She straightens up and starts filling a pot with water, completely silent. Once it's full enough, she faces me, face suspiciously blank. "What do you mean, _when_ we join the Wards?"

"After Lung, I thought you'd be all for it. We nearly died. Hell, I was under 10 HP at one point. We'd be safer with a team backing us up." We might be improving really fast, but we need help if we're going to survive this town.

Taylor moves the pot to the stove and turns another burner on before replying. "We need to be more careful, but that doesn't mean joining a team. Not necessarily. You have «ID Create». We can run from any fight that turns bad. Also if we spend a few weeks training up, we'd be better heroes. We don't need the Wards."

"We'd still have those advantages, plus teammates if we joined." What are they going to do, tell me to not use my awesome training powers?

"Have you forgotten what we talked about?" She really sounds upset. "Once you join the Wards, the Protectorate will learn how your powers work. They'll use you to power up their other capes."

I've been thinking about it, and as long as I can still contribute directly… "Probably. We're kinda already doing that." Not to draw attention to it or anything, but Taylor is like twice the level she was on Friday. "And helping out the Wards feels like the right thing to do."

"If they let you stay here with the Wards. James, they might take you away." She sounds really worried.

"Maybe, but it's not like they're Empire Eighty-Eight or the ABB." They aren't going to lock me up somewhere and force me to boost an endless stream of faceless capes. "They're the good guys. Besides, I've got my Illusion Barriers. I bet I could get away if I really had to." Not exactly likely anyone can crash my private dimension, especially not before I escape whatever constraints I'm left in. Okay, shackles could be a problem. Maybe I should try to find an «Escape Artist» book.

"Did you forget last night already?" Hey, that's my argument for joining! "The Protectorate is led by people like Armsmaster. he didn't listen to us at all. What makes you think it will be different? People in power - they don't really care about people like us, James. Why do you think I'm ignored at Winslow? They'll use you up."

...can I be used up? My power seems to quantify everything, and I don't have a gauge or anything for how much improvement I can dish out. Of course, it's possible it's something invisible, like the maximum XP in the Baldur's Gate games. I'll check the book later. "Honestly, I think you're overreacting a bit. They can't all be that bad." Miss Militia was completely cool about ignoring me putting my foot in it last night. One of two Protectorate members was nice. Okay, that's actually really bad. "But I get it. I get why you don't trust people in authority. So no Wards. At least not yet." Maybe once we meet a few more heroes and she sees that Armsmaster is the exception, not the rule.

"Well. Good." Taylor doesn't sound convinced. She finishes cooking without another word. I'm not sure what to say, so I just sit at the table quietly. It's an awkward few minutes before she slides a plate towards me and smiles weakly. "It's simple, but I hope you like it."

Oh wow. My mouth is completely watering. "I'm sure that I will. It smells great." There's not much to say while eating, but it's still tense. At least the food is good.

Taylor finally breaks the silence. "So… I told my father about my powers."

"So, how did it go?" Hopefully her dad is more like my dad than my mom.

"He freaked." Crap. "He basically told me we were stupid for fighting Lung." Oh. That's not so bad. "Didn't matter that we won. About the only thing he liked was that I've got the beginning of a partnership worked out with Parian. He really wants me to be a rogue rather than a hero."

That's one way of staying out of the Wards. "Ouch. At least you were able to tell on of your parents. I don't think my mom would take it well." Understatement. I'm not exactly sure how she'd react, but all things considered...yeah, wouldn't be pretty. "And my dad would tell her sooner or later. So did you tell him about me?"

"I told him about Beetle Knight, but no details…" I wonder if there's a proper etiquette for dealing with the parents of your superheroic colleagues? "It's just my dad. My mother passed away a couple of years ago. Automobile accident."

My foot spends more time in my mouth than on the floor these days. "Crap. I'm sorry. I didn't mean…" There's nothing I can say here.

"No, it's okay."

It really can't be. That was so fucking thoughtless. At least it was an honest accident. If I knew her better… Oh, hell no. "Emma." She knew.

"What about her?"

"That's what the «Treacherous Bitch» meant when she said 'cry for a week'. She was talking about… fuck." And I just brought that up again. I'm such an ass.

"Yes. Like I told Blackwell, she knows all my secrets and how to use them to hurt me the most." Her eyes are watering.

"Dammit, calling her a supervillain was too nice. That was…" There has to be a word for this… "Inexcusable. Like Slaughterhouse 9 inexcusable. We're going to complete that quest and see all three of them get what's coming to them. The bitches three are going to pay."

«Relationship with Taylor Hebert increased!»

"Good." There's approval in Taylor's voice. And the vicious grin on her face. "So got any ideas?"

"A few." I never really stop thinking, even if it's frequently… off topic. This has been running in the background all day. "Blackwell claimed that we can make a complaint in writing. Considering how that meeting went, I don't think we can trust anything to come of that. But things could go smoother if we try to dot all our 'i's and cross our 't's. We file a report with her and she can't complain if we go over her head later. But we're going to have to make it good. The more evidence the better. The journal you mentioned is a good start. Blackwell slammed us on he said/she said because it's just the two of us, but it isn't really. Cera, that... large girl who's slept with half the chess club is a favorite target of Madison's." First noticed that one around mid-October. I'm not really that observant, but I was chatting with her. Okay, I was… considering. Unpopular teen boy here, emphasis on 'unpopular' and 'teen'. "Tony, you know, the junior varsity quarterback, is… um… I think Sophia 'likes' him. It's not pretty." I think he'd be happier with Cera after him. "And _everyone_ picks on Greg. But I wouldn't use him as a witness. He makes an artform out of being unsympathetic." I bribed a few guys to stop swirlying him once. Let's just say I want a refund.

«Due to careful planning, your WIS has increased by 1!»

Whew, take a breath. Okay, continue. "There's a few others, but no one else gets it as bad. We can get old pocket voice-recorders, pre-digital, for something like twenty bucks." I'm pretty sure anything they say in the halls counts as 'public'. "Those bitches are sure to try something like today again, and next time we'll have them. If that isn't enough to get the school system to work, we take it to the cops. Then the media. Oh, and we should get a lawyer. Or a «Law» skill. Just to make sure everything is in order." Come to think of it, a lawyer will want to review the evidence. If there's anything in Taylor's notebook about her powers, it's going to be extra dicey putting it on the record without revealing anything extra. "Hey, do you mind if I take a look at that journal you mentioned?"

"I'll get it, and it's okay if you read it." The reluctance is expected. I'd have a hard time sharing something like that with anyone. "I meant it as a weapon against them, but I don't want to discuss it, you know?"

"I get it." Really. I'm sure I've only seen a fraction of what she was put through, and I can't even imagine what it was like in her place. There's no way she would want to relive all of that, rehash it. "How about I put it in my inventory and look at it later? No discussion, just want to know what we've got to work with."

"Yeah. That might be best."

Come to think of it, notebooks are just so much paper. Paper burns. It tears. It gets lost… "And we should make copies and keep the original. I wouldn't put it past Blackwell to 'lose' it or claim she never got it in the first place."

"I could so see that happening. For that matter the trio have a talent for stealing my things from my locker and my backpack. If they knew I had a journal of all their shit, they'd try to get their hands on it. I don't know if they'd go as far as breaking into my house, but I wouldn't put it past them. I know damn sure they can't steal it from your pocket dimension." With those _encouraging_ words, Taylor heads up the stairs.

At least this time I have something to do. Soap, sponge, fresh dishes, done in a matter of seconds. But the sponge is still soapy and there are a few other things in the sink. Might as well.

"I was joking about the dishes." Taylor sets a simple composition notebook on the counter with a nod.

Geeze, make some noise, would ya? "I wasn't. You cooked." I gesture towards her and some suds launch themselves at her, but thankfully fall short. I've got the dishes. So, as soon as these are done, you want to go shop for books?"

"Um, maybe." Maybe? Before I can respond, the phone rings and Taylor grabs it. "Hello, Hebert residence." I don't think I'll ever enjoy listening to just one side of a phone conversation. Taylor looks bemused by whatever she's hearing on the other end of the line. "Really? Well, you can be sure I'll have a word with her about that. I'll make sure the paper is signed. Thank you for calling." Tell _her_? "Winslow. I'll tell my father, I guess. They'll probably call your home as well."

Oh. "Crap. Mind if we swing by my house on the way to the bookstore? I need to erase that message off the answering machine." They already want my parent's signature, do they really have to call as well?

Taylor shrugs, unconcerned. "You're not going to tell them?"

Fuck no. "Not if I don't have to. If my mom knows I'm not in school, she'll make me come with her to the office every day." Mom works as a shared secretary for the Internship Coordination office for Medhall. I've spend so many hours reading outdated magazines and listening to college students panic about graduation requirements. The only real upside is that a few of the other workers drag their kids in on occasion. Even though she's a year or two younger than me, Cynthea was a lot of fun to hang out with until recently. Somehow the friendly tomboy became a stuck-up prep. "That's just a waste of a week off school. Besides, didn't you want to get more training in?"

"Detour to the Barron residence approved." Well, she seems really happy about it.

"Awesome." I rinse off the last plate and put it aside.

«A new skill has been created through repeated action.»  
«A skill to clean soiled dishes, [Dishwashing], has been created.»  
«Dishwashing (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0%»  
«A technique to wash dishes.»  
«With more mastery, you can clean any dirty spots. 5% increase in dish washing speed.»

I didn't actually expect that. "Looks like it was a good thing that I did the dishes. I just got a «Dishwashing» skill."

Taylor thinks it's a joke until I read the skill description off. Then she commiserates with me over the waste of a slot, but isn't that bad. The less time it takes me to wash dishes, the better. And maybe there's something in the book about deleting useless skills. And apparently I hadn't mentioned the book to her before. Oops. Taylor also has a few things to catch me up on.

"Let me see. My father wants to meet you." What's she been telling him? "As Beetle Knight. Miss Militia wants to set a time for both of us to meet the Wards." Excellent. That should help Taylor reconsider things. And maybe I can get Clockblocker to sign the sticker. "Tattletale wants to meet both of us." Ooooh. Maybe I should brush my teeth while we're at my place? "Oh, and I picked up some kind of earring loot from Lung and I have no clue what it does."

First things first. "Your father wants to meet…" Me? That's ominous. Never done a meet the parents before. Oh, right, "Beetle Knight?"

"Relax," Taylor holds up a placating hand. "We took down Lung. Surely, my father is less scary than a fire-breathing man-dragon?"

Well, when you put it that way… I wobble my knees and add a tremor to my voice. "I'm not sure about that."

Taylor doesn't play along. "I'll tell you about all those on the way to your house. Let me grab my costume first though." She takes a half-step away and pushes open a door to a set of dark stairs leading under the house. Looks dusty. "Do you want to see my basement workshop? Most people would probably find it creepy. I've got several thousand spiders down there spinning silk for me, and most of them are black widows." Okay, I guess she is playing along.

"Sounds cool. Unless you've suddenly lost control of them. Lead the way, Lolth." Almost went with 'Mistress of Spiders', but remembered the evil goddess at the last second.

"Lolth?" Sounds like Taylor doesn't get it.

People say explaining ruins the joke. Not true. _Over-explaining_ ruins the joke. "Demon Queen of the Spiders, Mother of the Drow, that Lolth." There. Just enough explanation.

The basement has less spiders in it than I was expecting. There's dozens of projects strewn across the room, lines of gold and yellowish grey stretching across counters and from rafters, but it's not like the room is _covered_ in them. Still wouldn't want to be down here without a bug controller, but I can easily walk around without stepping on anything. Mostly, it just looks like a basement: dusty, filled with boxes, and only half-finished. Still, it's cool watching a cluster of black widows scramble around each other, weaving a delicate-looking cord. They're faster than I'd expect. Could be finished in a matter of hours. "Damn. This is impressive. Hail Lolth, Queen of the Demonweb Pits."

"Yes, yes, and you're making her majesty angry. Who is this Lolth person?"

And sometimes the joke really does need more explaining. Still, better keep it short. People complain when I ramble. "Lolth is a spider deity in D&D," please don't tell my mom I know that, "the evil goddess that the Drow worship." Well, the big one.

"I'm going to be sorry I asked, but what are Drow? Some kind of spider people?" Really? Her dad is cool with her presumably playing Dungeons and Dragons, but she doesn't even… Merf. She has a right to not be interested. Even if she's wrong. And a little fixated on spiders.

"Not quite. Drow are dark elves. Sometimes Lolth turns them into spider people called Driders, which are like spider centaurs." Should I mention Driders are like 99% male? Nah. "The Drow themselves are like the opposite of Lord of Rings elves." Well, the High Elves. Not that she'd know the difference between High and Forest, not with her unfamiliar with Drow. "Evil, black-skinned, white-haired, and kinda BDSM-y." ...I just mentioned BDSM. Why didn't I just say 'leather-obsessed'? Quick, say something less sexual. "Oh, and they're matriarchal. Women have all the power, men exist to serve them." In the bedroom. Crap. That wasn't much better.

"Well, at least they got something right." Good, ignore the awkward sex references.

Now, to shift focus before she catches on. "So…" I gesture towards a more complex, grid-like web. "What do you have them making?"

Taylor lights up in that 'someone asked about my unusual hobby' way. "Well first of all, they made me these three replacement skirt-nets and some silken cords so I can «Entangle» zombies again." Well, that explains that. "Over there is another silken cord being woven. Strands to threads, threads to cords, and eventually cords to rope. Next time we fight Legion Zombie, I plan to have a rope with us."

"Next time?" Wait, I was already thinking about farming it for tuition. And I might get another skill book. "You know, that's a great idea. The loot was awesome, and it should be much easier to kill now. We already have a strategy that works and we leveled up a LOT from beating Lung. And we won't even have to sacrifice your skirts. How long until you have the rope done?"

Taylor pauses for a thoughtful moment before answering. "I already had my spiders weaving this morning, they're pretty tapped out. Probably two more production runs, one later today, one tomorrow and I'll have my rope. Another day if we want to play it safe and have two ropes."

"Good call, boss, I'm all for playing it safe." Actually, I'd rather not wait, but I have been dragging Taylor headlong into messes lately. Better to slow down for a bit. Still, there has to be something else we can do for training. "Oh, and I've got other dungeons than just Zombies now. I think beating the Legion Zombie unlocked a Ghost dungeon," not sure where else it could have come from, "and beating Lung gave me a Dragon Yakuza dungeon. Now that we know there are bosses, we don't want to kill too many at once, but we could give those a try." Not really interested in fighting another dragon boss until I've got some more fire resistance.

"Really?" Taylor sounds very happy to have options other than the reeking dead. "Cool. We'll have to be careful scouting them. Can we even hurt a ghost? Will they be intangible? Or more like floating jello? And they'll probably be higher level, won't they?" Wow. Didn't know she could babble like that.

Let's see, what were the questions again? Jello? Some games let you damage ghosts with normal weapons or fire, so, "Maybe? I'm not sure, but we can always run away as long as the boss hasn't shown up yet. And yeah, but higher level means better loot."

"Okay then," she nods firmly. "Checking them out definitely goes on our to-do list. Right after getting some skill books. Damn, we've got a lot to do today. I'll get these guys to wrap things up and we'll get moving."

Given how spiders eat, that's an interesting wording. "Okay, as long as I'm not one of the things they're wrapping up."

"Not unless you keep up the puns." Hey, I'm a superhero now. Puns are _required_! "It will be just a few minutes. Plus we have a few things we can cross off the list." As the myriad arachnids finished or simply concealed their projects, Taylor fished around in a pile of fabric, her costume I guess, and fished out a few things. "These are for you, I guess they're «Dragon Scales» and used for crafting. I don't know what this earring does."

Ooh, jewelry! Hey, it's not weird if it follows RPG rules. I absently confirm the scales and their current uselessness before tucking them into my inventory. Let's see here... the earring is a big off-white white fang dangling from a silver hoop. "«Observe»."

«Dragonfang Earring»  
«Type: Accessory; Quality: Rare»  
«A simple earring made from a from a dragon's fang. Provides a 25% resistance to fire.»

Nice. That will help a lot the next time I face someone with fire powers. Or a flamethrower. Or most explosives. With this I can… crap. I've already got «Elemental Resistance» and «Gamer's Body». _Taylor_ is flammable and scars. I read off the stats for her benefit. "And… it's yours." That hurt. Like, really hurt to give up.

"What do you mean it's mine? Are you sure?" Don't tempt me.

"Completely. You can't use the more…" awesome? magical?, "exotic skill books, so you've been kinda screwed over with the loot so far. And I just made myself some stuff from the blueprints the zombies dropped." And now I'm feeling shitty for being selfish about that. "Once we get in another run or two, I'll make you a set."

Taylor doesn't look convinced, but she still takes the fang and switches it out with a stud from her right ear. Huh. Didn't really notice that before. "Okay. How's it look?"

Kinda lopsided, and danglier than I usually like, but it isn't terrible. Kinda edgy, really. "Gives you a bit of a rebel look. I like it." I play up my approval a little bit for her sake.

"Really?" I give her a little nod. "Right. So… I think my spiders can close up from here. Let's get going to your house. We can walk this time. Got a lot to got over. Speaking of which. What did you get from that book Lung dropped?"

...I forgot. "Doh. The book teaches «Dragon's Scales», and I haven't learned it yet! I'm going to do that now." Before I can get distracted again. "«Inventory»." I fish the scaley book out and switch to the «Dragon Slayer» title. Click «Yes», ride the rush of non-Euclidean colors and coppery shapes deliciously engrave a new equation into my brain. "It's kinda like «Zombie's Hide», but it gives more armor and has fire resistance instead of others. And they can't stack. Which kinda sucks, but I'm not complaining." I feel a little better about giving up the earring now.

Taylor loads her backpack with her hero gear, the bat hanging out a bit. On the way back to my house, she tells me that switching clothes through the «Inventory» cleans them off, but doesn't fix them. If my clothes hadn't been crisped, I could have used that. Still, it'll come in handy later. I try to explain the odd mix of mundane and fantastic involved in «Crafting», but it doesn't seem like I'm doing a good job of it. I try to make up for it by asking Taylor to tell her dad I'll can come by and meet him at five tomorrow. Should still give me time to get home before the parents do, and Andy probably won't notice if I'm not there to fight over who gets to play on the computer. We both want to meet the Wards tomorrow, and while I'd like to see Tattletale again, I'd really like to see exactly what she said first. She may be friendly, and I'll admit an attraction, but she's still a villain.

As expected, no one is home at just a little after two. I let us both in and waved Taylor towards the living room. "We can use my family's computer, but we'll need to be quick." Andy might decide to ditch his last class (again) and I don't need the kind of crap I get from bringing someone home with getting permission. Especially a girl. Especially since I've never… had a girl over. "So this is the Barron residence, don't mind the mess. Bathroom is at the end of the hall if you need it. I'm going to go clear the answering machine. Do you want water or anything?" We actually have 'or anything' for once.

"No, I'm fine."

There's only one message on the machine, and it only takes a moment to confirm it's the right one. Beep, one problem down. Taylor is still standing when I get back to the living room. Of course, given just how old and shabby the furniture is, I'd be wary of sitting on it if I didn't live here. "Found a message from Winslow and took care of it. So, um, computer this way in Wil- the library." Will and Nick don't exactly have a claim on the room anymore.

Taylor is polite enough to not comment on the overflowing laundry hamper in the hall, or the piles of boxes cluttering the 'library'. I take a seat in front of the moderately obsolete computer and wake it up. "It's password protected, if barely. But I think Dad uses this password elsewhere, so I'll log on, then we can swap and you can log onto PHO."

"We don't have to swap places. I trust you to have my back against Lung, so I think I can trust you with my PHO account. It's Lady_Bug: capital L, capital B, underscore in-between. Password is Dickens with a capital D." Taylor parks behind me.

I pop open a window and log in. "You really didn't have to tell me that. Why Dickens?"

"Literary reference. _A Tale of Two Cities_. 'It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.' Seems to fit how I felt about triggering." Yikes. That's… got some weight to it. And here I was thinking it was an ' _A Christmas Carol_ ' reference.

Don't make a big deal of it. Change topic. "Oh. I did something similar with my user name." Come to think of it, "I should probably make a cape account later. And we're in."

Floral-scented curls cover half my face for a moment before Taylor pushes her hair back. "Um, sorry."

"It's okay?" I scoot a little to the side so she won't have to lean over me as I pull up the PM she indicates. It's pretty vague. "So, Tattletale says she owes us two and wants to repay? We should take her up on it. I know she's a villain, but she's also a Thinker." I can think of a few ways she could repay us. And _most_ of them involve her powers. "She might have some ideas on paying back the bullies and a different perspective on trusting the Wards."

Taylor is quick to provide a counterpoint. "On the other hand, she's a Thinker. If we give her clues, she could quickly find our true identities."

"But she owes us. And if it's that easy for her to find us, she'll do it anyway." Besides, I'm sure she's too smart to flaunt the unspoken rules like that. "Isn't it better to keep things friendly, at least for now?" Until we catch her committing a crime or something?

"Okay, go ahead and write her, but we don't give her any clues about how your powers work." I get it. You don't have to look so stern. "Understand?"

Reading the message is one thing. "Okay, but I'm not typing PMs for you. Swap." I delicately slide past her.

"Fine." She's a faster typist than me, so I don't quite catch everything as I'm reading the original messages. I _do_ get that she asks 'AllSeeingEye' when and where she wants to meet. Then she writes a second message to Miss Militia, offering to meet her and the Wards tomorrow, if possible. As she hits 'send', an alert pops up. "Weird. I have another message. Huh, Tattletale already replied."

Taylor doesn't _read_ faster than me though.

Private message from AllSeeingEye  
Subject: Proposed Meet  
U can't dismiss a debt so easily. I'll meet you at the same spot we crossed paths last night, k? Don't have to get gussied up if you catch my drift. I'll be in casual wear. We could meet at 3. That will give you enough time to get there from your neighborhood with everything you need. Let me know.  
Tt  
"How the fuck does she know how long it will take us to get there?" I don't think I've heard her cuss like that before.

"That's a good fucking question." I may be a bad influence. "I guess the best way to find out is to meet her."

Taylor mumbles something under her breath, but shoots a confirmation message back at Tattletale. "We should go in costume. There's no reason to risk it before we've gotten a better feel for her."

Unless she's planning on screwing us. Over. Screwing us over, we'll be seeing her face whether or not we show her ours. "I'm not sure there's anywhere I'd want to change into costume in broad daylight, so maybe we could change here and use Illusion Barriers to get there unnoticed?" I back up a step so Taylor has room to stand and she gives me a LOOK. What? Oh, right. "That door's the bathroom."

"I'll be right back." She even locks the door.

Well, to each their own. And this gives me a chance to try out my first macro. "«Beetle Knight, Stag Mode!»" Works like a charm. My whole outfit changes at once. Wow, the «Undead Shirt» is a bit more form-fitting than I'd expected. I've never worn something I can see my abs through. Of course, I've never had abs like this before. The pauldrons look exactly as awesome as expected. Not that they look any different when worn.

"Did you say something?" And now Lady Bug is in my house. There's a superheroine coming out of the bathroom. In my house. Wei- no, weird is insufficient. Trippy?

It only takes a moment to explain macros to Taylor and open an empty Illusion Barrier. "We can…" We don't need to climb out the window, "go now."

In an empty, illusory city, «Sprinting» just feels more natural. Totally has nothing to do with being unnerved by the silence. And I get another level in the skill. We only get about two, two and a half blocks before things kinda haze as we reach the edge of the dungeon. Definite upside of living in a city? There's always an alley nearby.

"«ID Escape». Hey, since we're making good time, how about we try running through the Ghost Barrier? Just to get an idea what it's like." Don't really have time to go for a real fight, but it would be nice to have a better idea what we're facing for later.

It's really hard to tell why with masks on, but Taylor pauses a moment before hesitantly agreeing, "Okay, but we keep moving. And don't forget to «Observe» them."

I bounce a salute into my customary 'raised hand' pose before grabbing Taylor's hand.. "«ID Create: Ghost»!" Just like that, all the traffic noise disappears. Along with the few pedestrians I can see just beyond the alley. Hadn't seen that before.

«Restless Ghost»  
«Level 12»

The ghosts aren't all identical, but they do all skew towards RPG typical. Flowing, tattered robes wrapped in dark chains, all hazy and indistinct around the edges. Under the hoods, though… dark pits where eyes should be. It's one thing to see on a computer or television screen. In person… I've got «Gamer's Mind». Taylor doesn't. "It's okay. Most of them are level 12, only a few are 13. It'll be a complete walk in the park. «Observe»"

«Observe's level has increased by 1!»

«Restless Ghost Lvl 13»  
«HP: 650/650 MP: 1300/1300»  
«A wandering spirit. No matter how it died, it resents the living, attacking them to rip their spirits and bodies apart. Lacking a corporeal form, it cannot be harmed by purely physical attacks or do physical damage without spending MP.»

Um… maybe special attacks count because they use MP? I silently «Power Strike» the nearest specter in the face.

«-200 MP»

Wait… MP damage? That's weird. And if I can't hurt them... "Nope. Nevermind. It's immune. Let's just…" Taylor is already running, trailing ghosts. I have to activate «Sprint» just to catch up to her. Her cloak billows majestically as she beats a tactical retreat.

"There! Get us out of here!" Taylor emphatically points to the next alley as I pull along her.

"«ID Escape!»" The spirits vanish, and a pair of… preoccupied college students appear, enthusiastically necking against a dumpster. They don't even look up. "«ID Create». Maybe we should leave that one alone. But the Dragon barrier can't be tha-"

"No." I don't need to see Taylor's face for that one.

"Bu… okay." We don't say much else as we dash across town, but we do each make it to level 6 on «Sprint» before Taylor says she's at her limit. Considering her higher VIT, I guess «Gamer's Body» is helping somehow. I also earn another two levels on «ID Create» and «ID Escape» from all the barriers.

Taylor signals me about a block before the alley. "Alright, this is close enough. Bring us out between the dumpsters. I'll locate her with «Combat Mapping» and make sure she's alone."

Thankfully, it's actually empty in this alley. There's not much for Beetle Knight to do while Lady Bug is handling reconnaissance, so I awkwardly try to find a place to put my hands without looking like a tool. Pockets is too relaxed. Hips feels too much like the 'Superman pose' for me. I settle on 'parade rest', both hands folded in the small of my back and feet shoulder-width apart.

"Looks good from here," Taylor interrupts my experimenting. "I want to check the far side. Open an empty zone and we'll go to that narrow side alley where we spied on the meet." 'Before you pulled that boneheaded charge on Lung' goes unspoken. We relocate the short distance quickly, and Taylor must have have sent some bugs ahead, because it takes her less time to speak up this time. "Okay, all clear as far as I can see. I'll use some bug arrows to have her join us… no, it's a bit narrow to meet here. Looks like we'll have to meet her on the roof. There aren't any other places to meet around here without being seen."

"I'll go first?" I wait a moment before jumping the first few feet up the ladder. Hate ladders. Taylor is up only a moment behind me. After a second's consideration, she sits on a air conditioner with her cloak spread regally behind her, bat across her knees. I loom over her right shoulder in my spiffy new pose. It's not bad for short notice, I hope.

A blonde head peers over the edge of the roof, a smirk already on her lips. Huh. Didn't expect the freckles. Guess they were covered by her mask last night. Very cute.

«Sarah "Lisa Wilbourn" Livesey»  
«Level 28»  
«Smart Ass»

Body follows head. She's wearing a purple blouse with just a hint of cleavage. Huh, think that's the same shade as her costume. In case we didn't realize it was her? Her jeans look snug enough to make scaling the ladder difficult. Nice. And oops.

"Lady Bug, Beetle Knight, I'm glad you were at least willing to meet with me. While I really am serious about owing you both, I need to ask for your help first."

* * *

Game Stats

«+1 WIS», «+1 Dishwashing», «+1 Observe», «+2 ID Create», «+2 ID Escape», «+4 Sprint»


	40. Guild Invites 4-7

**Guild Invites 4.7**

I wasn't happy that Tattletale knew how long it would take us to get to the meeting point, but the how was obvious – Thinker power bullshit. The why was also obvious – to throw us off. I shouldn't let her get to me. We'd find out her agenda soon enough. James suggested that we change into costume here and cross the city using multiple Illusion Barriers. While we could run in our civvies and change when we got there, this was a good opportunity to practice using James's Illusion Barriers. So I quickly agreed and changed in the bathroom. My costume wasn't quite complete. I only had three skirt-nets and I was using the prototype cape that Parian had made for design purposes. It looked the same, but it was just linen instead of spider silk. Still, it would have to do. I at least had silk cords to compensate for my lack of skirt-nets. I was also short on good bugs. I'd brought a bunch of ladybugs and a dozen black widows from home, but I'd need more. I opened the tiny bathroom window and called more bugs to me: wasps, hornets, some ants, and lots of small fliers for «Combat Mapping». I had them land on my back under my cloak, so I'd have some bugs with me, but I'd need to gather more when we arrived.

James opened an empty Illusion Barrier to get us across the city. They were disturbingly quiet lacking the sounds of traffic, people, animals, and even wind. It also lacked the bug life that my senses expected, the millions of bugs all around crawling in dirt and hiding all around. It was a bit creepy, partly from the mere lack of noise, and partly because I kept expecting zombies to jump out at us. James broke into a «Sprint» which turned our journey into an impromptu race, albeit a short one. We only made it a few blocks before we reached the hazy zone that marked the edge of the Illusion Barrier. We quickly found an alleyway and James pulled us back into reality.

"Hey, since we're making good time, how about we try running through the Ghost Barrier? Just to get an idea what it's like." James didn't even sound winded.

I frowned behind my mask. I wasn't really happy with the idea. I didn't have enough bugs on me to run much of a «Combat Map» and only could manage a few «Entangles». On the other hand, we did need to scout the Ghost and Dragon Yakuza dungeons. Worst case scenario we would just turn around and leave. "Okay, but we keep moving. And don't forget to «Observe» them."

James tossed me a salute, did the rock star pose with his hand in the air, and called out "«ID Create: Ghost»!"

The quiet bugless void of a new Illusion Barrier opened around us. I immediately sent out most of the small bugs I had on me to get a minimal «Combat Map» established. At the same time I grabbed my bat and prepped two silk cords for «Entangles», because the ghosts had spawned all around us, just like the zombies did.

In the movies ghosts usually look human, just glowing and see-through. These ghosts were translucent and fuzzy around the edges, but less human. Tattered robes bound in chains hid their bodies from my view, but the faces... flat and expressionless with fathomless pits for eyes. A shudder ran down my spine as I met ones gaze and stared into the black abyss. These were not merely the souls of the dead, but the damned. As they glided toward me, I gripped my bat desperately and unleashed my silken cord carrying bugs. My «Combat Map» wasn't in place yet, but I sent them in to «Entangle» anyway.

"It's okay," said James confidently. "Most of them are level 12, only a few are 13. It'll be a complete walk in the park. «Observe»"

As my bugs spread out to create my «Combat Map», they encountered ghosts and almost immediately died. All I received from them was a brief sensation of cold and pain followed by nothing. As James punched a ghost in the face, the «Entangles» that I'd sent into attack made contact. I lost most of the bugs carrying the silk cords, and the cords passed right through them. Fuck this!

"Nope. Nevermind. It's immune. Let's just…"

"Get the fuck out of here!" At least the ghosts seemed slow. I headed toward the ghosts briefly getting them to turn to me, then I turned the other direction to create an opening. The ghosts followed. Apparently this should be named the Pac-Man dungeon. Hopefully that wasn't too accurate a description, because every game of Pac-Man ended with him surrounded and dead. We needed a place to exit where there were no ghosts and hopefully no one to see us emerge. Empty alleyway. Perfect! "There! Get us out of here!"

James grabbed my shoulder and we suddenly appeared in a not-empty alley. Fortunately, the teenaged prostitute in the alley seemed to have her John very much distracted. Or maybe she wasn't a prostitute, all their clothes were still on and they were only necking between the dumpsters. I didn't have time to speculate because they vanished when James opened up another Illusion Barrier.

"Maybe we should leave that one alone," James vastly understated the obvious. "But the Dragon barrier can't be tha-"

"No." I turned to face him. He couldn't be serious. Those ghosts could have killed us. I was about use small words to explain it to him, but the popup announcing a gain in my «Intimidate» skill was a big clue that I'd already made my point.

"Bu… okay." Thankfully James let it drop.

I'm pretty sure that I hurt his feelings, because the rest of the journey he didn't say much except "«ID Create»", "«ID Escape»" and "«Sprint»". I wondered if I should apologize. It wasn't all his fault. We'd _both_ been stupid exploring the Ghost dungeon that way. On the other hand, he wanted to double down on our stupidity by trying out the Dragon Yakuza dungeon after that near disaster. Didn't matter. I wasn't in any shape to talk to James because I could barely breathe. Each illusion barrier only lasted a couple of blocks, so we stopped frequently, but the breaks weren't enough to catch my breath. The ache in my legs turned into a burn and then into pins and needles. I had a higher VIT and a higher level in «Sprint», but James was running me into the ground. I tried to push through the pain, focus on my bugs, and let a part of me handle my body, but eventually I reached my limit and had to give up. I just couldn't match him. We ended up walking the last few blocks. My legs felt like limp noodles and I wanted to just collapse, but something I'd picked up either with «Aikido» and «Acrobatics» warned me that I needed to keep walking until the shakes passed and thoroughly stretch afterwards.

We were also almost there. I had James bring us out a block away so I could scout the area. I stretched as I gathered bugs and set up «Combat Mapping». Tattletale was probably the lone female person at the meeting spot. I didn't spot anyone else that looked like the Undersiders, no giant dogs for sure, but there were people about. We relocated to the narrow alleyway where we'd spied on Lung and I searched again. I was fairly certain that it was only Tattletale, and I'd also had an opportunity to gather some more combat bugs. As we moved up to the roof and took up position, some of my bugs found a gun in her purse. I repeated my trick with the ABB and sent more bugs to crawl into her purse and jam the gun. I had to use smaller bugs since it was broad daylight, but better safe than sorry.

Once we were on the roof, I guided Tattletale to us with some ladybug arrows. I sat down on an air conditioner, mostly because I was afraid that I might collapse if I stood too much longer. I really overdid the «Sprint» training, but I pushed that to the back of my mind to focus on Tattletale. James posed behind me and I spread out my cloak. Showtime.

Tattletale climbed up to join us. She looked different out of costume. Her blonde hair certainly looked better in the sunlight than in shadow, and the freckles made her less femme fatale and more little miss innocent. However, the knowing smirk remained the same, and her clothes echoed her costume. Her blouse was the same lavender shade as her costume while her blue jeans were as tight as spandex.

«Fashion Rating, Confident. +20% to Reaction Rolls, +10% to Seduction»

"Lady Bug, Beetle Knight, I'm glad you were at least willing to meet with me. While I really am serious about owing you both, I need to ask for your help first."

Color me unsurprised that the villainous Thinker had a hidden agenda. "What kind of help?"

Tattletale didn't reply for a moment. She merely studied us both. "You may as well take off your mask, Lady Bug. I already know your identity, more importantly my 'employer' already knows your identity – Taylor Hebert, daughter of Danny Hebert, currently enrolled at Winslow High School."

Fuck me. I wanted scream and shout at her, but she was clearly trying to get a rise out of me. "Was that a threat? You know there are rules about that. They're unwritten, but they're pretty damn clear. Secret identities are off limits." I directed two black widows to crawl up behind her and onto her shoes. Not that I planned to have them bite her. If I attacked it would be with my «Entangle». She'd pushed my buttons, the widows were my way of pushing back.

I couldn't see James behind me, but through my bugs I knew his posture stiffened. "Do you really want to be naming names, Miss Sarah Livsey?"

Tattletale, presumably Sarah Livsey, didn't seem at all bothered. "Well, I guess that's fair. Which makes it your turn. My 'employer' is also suspects that you're James Barron. While he isn't sure yet, he will be soon. I can never keep what I know from him for long. I'm not here to blackmail you. I'm here to warn you. Given enough time I probably could have worked out your identities, but I'm not your problem. It's my employer."

My black widows were now on her shoes and crawling up onto her socks. "Who is your employer and why shouldn't we shoot the messenger?"

"His name is Coil. He pretends to be a minor player, but he has a powerful Thinker ability. He wants to force you to work for him, like he did me. If you help me get away from him, I can help you stay out of his grasp. I'm at your mercy here. With your power I'm basically standing in a minefield that is completely under your control."

«New Quest Alert: Save Tattletale»  
«Help Tattletale escape from Coil's clutches without getting trapped yourself»  
«Reward: 25,000 XP, Increased reputation with Undersiders, and a new teammate.»  
«Failure: Capture, imprisonment, torture, forced servitude and possible death of yourself, James Barron, Tattletale and multiple innocent parties.»  
«Bonus Goals: Remove Coil as a threat by any means necessary.»  
«Bonus Reward: 50,000 XP»  
«Accept?»  
«Yes» «No»

I rapidly read the window. Fuckity-fuck fuck! Torture, forced servitude, any means necessary. James's power was spelling it out in no uncertain terms that Coil needed to go down. Multiple innocent parties. Tattletale, or Sarah Livsey, had already mentioned my father's name. "«Yes.» We'll help you. Beetle Knight, I think we should trust her."

"«Yes,» I agree." James gestured with his hand and the bugs I had on his helmet suddenly took flight before landing on his hair.

Mentally I cussed out James. Even without turning I could figure out that he'd just stored his helmet in his «Inventory». Just because I was willing to help her didn't mean I was ready to give away all our secrets yet. His little extradimensional holding space would have been a good one to hold back.

"James Barron at your service. You'll have to tell me how you figured it out sometime."

Sarah grinned at him. "And sometime I'll tell you."

I ordered my black widows off her socks as I reached up and removed my face mask. "And I am Taylor Hebert."

"My real name is Sarah Livsey, but I don't use that name any longer." She smiled at both of us. "My friends call me Lisa."

"Nice to meet you, Lisa. Now, tell us everything you know about Coil." I was trying to «Intimidate» her but my right calf muscle painfully seized up on me and ruined my delivery. "Oh shit. Damn."

"Taylor! I mean, Lady B- ah, screw it. Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Just a cramp," I lied. I bent over trying to massage the massive knot of pain out of my calf. I knew I should have stretched more.

Lisa held her hands up. "Muscle spasms. She's not a brute like you. You both ran all the way here. Most people can't just sprint half-way across the city like that. A rub down should help, ice or rest would also work." She turned to me. "You need to cut yourself some slack. Pushing yourself like this will only lead to injury. As it is you might have to take a few days off to heal. Lay down and I'll see what I can do."

The cramp wouldn't let go and now my other leg felt like it might join in. Maybe I should let someone help, but not her. While Lisa was a girl and having her do it would be less awkward in some ways, I was having a hard time trusting her despite the big nudge from James's power. "Thank you, but no. James, would you mind? Please?"

Thankfully, James agreed. "Of course."

I laid down on the gravel roof, which was already warm in the sun. Damn this was a terrible first impression. I felt James grab my leg and start working my calf. It didn't take him long to find the cramp. I propped my torso up on my arms and tried to focus on the Tattletale. "So, what is your Thinker power, 'Lisa'?"

"Oh, I'm psychic."

"What the hell does that mean?" Holding back the pain had me snapping off my words and that sounded a lot more accusatory than I planned, but really did she have precognition, aura reading, or something like that? James's fingers were doing little to ease the ball of pain in my calf.

She sighed and sat down cross-legged on the gravel by me. "I'm sorry, that's just a little joke. I have enhanced intuition. It's great for puzzles. Give me a few clues and I jump ahead to the solution. I can tell you're the literary type. Think of me as Miss Sherlock Holmes, only a hell of a lot smarter."

Ego showing much? "So that's what let you work out our names?"

"Not really. Coil already knew somehow. I have no clue how he beat me to it." There was more than a trace of irritation there. "He was only mostly sure about James." And now her usual smugness was back in full force. "Your reactions, the little clues in your body language, confirmed it for me. It was obvious, really."

"Fine." Not it wasn't. Not really. "So tell me how did Coil… Oooh. Aaaah." I don't know what James did, but it was suddenly like he had heated fingers. The knot in my calf melted away under his magic touch. "Oh, don't stop."

Tattletale lost it, laughing loud and long. "Maybe you two should get a room."

James froze like he'd been stung. "Is… that better?" The subtext seemed to be if he should stop now.

From the heat on my face I was blushing up a storm, but I was supposed to be the team leader. "It's better, but still hurts, please keep going." I quietly mouthed "«Intimidate»" before focusing a glare at her. "And you, grow up. Regardless of my cramp, this is serious."

"Wow, that's..." She snapped her fingers at James. "I _knew_ you were underselling with the whole Thinker/Brute combo thing. You're a Trump aren't you? You're getting new powers when you need them. No… that's Über's schtick. You get them as you _use_ them. However…" She turned back to me. "You just mumbled 'intimidate' and suddenly got scary. That doesn't match your powers. Plus both of you did a tandem flip-flop in your attitudes toward me. Not to mention the way _both_ of you keep flicking your eyes away. What are you two seeing that I'm not?"

I didn't need this. Her enhanced intuition wasn't quite as bullshit as James's power, but it was close. "That's why you wanted us to unmask. You can read us better when you can see our faces."

«Your insight is keen. WIS has increased by 1»

"Looks like I've got some competition for the Miss Sherlock Holmes contest. You're right. Body language gives me a lot to go on, but I can read more from faces. Now that I've answered your questions, it's your turn."

"It's not really my secret to tell." I looked back at James. "What do you think? Should we tell her?"

James paused in massaging my calf. The knot in my leg was gone now, but I really wanted him to continue. He gave Tattletale a long look before responding. "With her power, I don't think we can stop her from finding out. Besides, we both got the same quest didn't we?"

"We did," I agreed with a sigh. "I'll tell her." And as much as it pained me to ask, my legs were both still sore. I wasn't sure that I could walk, and I needed to be ready to fight. "Would you please do both my legs and up to my thighs?" Damn it. I was blushing again.

"You should," added Lisa. "She overextended herself. You're not just relieving that cramp, you're actually repairing torn muscles. That's a low-grade healing ability."

James nodded. "It's very limited healing. It's mostly good for fatigue, but it will get faster with practice." He resumed kneading my leg.

Even if it was just fatigue related, it was still pretty awesome. This could let me keep up with James in training. I focused my attention on Lisa, because now that the pain was gone James's touch felt rather intimate, and I'd just asked him to do my thighs as well. "Very well, I'll tell you about our powers and you'll tell us everything about Coil. We'll do everything we can to help you get free and stop him. Agreed?"

Tattletale nodded. "Agreed. You scratch my back. I scratch yours. Your secrets are safe with me. It's all copacetic."

I wasn't really happy about this, but James was right. With her power Tattletale would find out anyway. "«Invite Lisa»."

«As the designated Party Leader you may dismiss party members, but only The Gamer can add members to the party.»

Lisa was staring from me to James with a puzzled look on her face.

"You have to do it, James."

"«Invite Lisa Wilbourn»" intoned James.

"What. The. Fuck?!" shrieked Lisa. "This… This is…"

"Bullshit?" James and I asked together.

"Yes, glorious bullshit."

«Sarah "Lisa Wilbourn" Livsey has joined the party.»

«Mini Tutorial Start!»  
«Teams»  
«Now that you have a party of three members The Gamer has the ability to form a Team.»  
«While only active party members can gain and increase stats and skills, forming a Team has several advantages»  
«As a team you are more than individuals. The actions of each team member impacts the [Reputation] of the team.»  
«To create a Team, The Gamer must propose a Team Name and a minimum of two additional party members must accept.»

Lisa stared at a window her eyes wide. "Pure, glorious, 100% concentrated bullshit."

And there was the answer to our quest to form a Team. Maybe James's power could have explained that at the time. "James, it says you have to do it."

"I saw that. Just thinking what to put there. I just don't want another lame name like «Tutorial?», and we've never really discussed team names."

"Monarchs," said Lisa. "It works for both your insect and Lady/Knight themes."

That… worked. "I like it."

"Agreed," said James. "«Create Team Monarchs.»"


	41. Taylor's Character Sheet - Arc 4

Taylor's Character sheet as the end of Arc 4 - Guild Invites. If you'll look carefully you'll spot some skill-ups that were not specifically called out in story. I've started using a spreadsheet to track her constant out-of-combat practice. That's the source of the unmentioned skill increases. storyline.

 **Taylor Hebert aka Lady Bug**  
 **Level: 26**

 **Titles**

 **Active: Dragonslayer**  
+50% to Reaction and Intimidation rolls  
 _Before long, every soul on Earth will know the Dragon is defeated!_

 **Inactive: Apprentice Hero**  
10% increase in XP gained when mentored by a higher level character  
10% increase in skill exp gained when coached by a more experienced character  
Only available to level 50  
 _Grow as a Hero and save the world!_

 **Inactive: Unaffiliated Parahuman**  
+20% Reaction rolls with your fellow rogues.  
 _Hero? Villain? Just show me the money._

 **Inactive: Apprentice Undead Hunter**  
30% increase in attack damage against the undead.  
30% increase in defense versus the undead.  
All stats plus 5 while facing the undead.  
 _Become an Undead Hunter and eradicate the undead!_

 **Retired: Novice Hero**  
10% increase in exp gain for stats  
10% increase in exp gain for skills  
Only available to level 25  
 _With great power comes great responsibility._

 **Stats**  
 **STR: 16**  
 **AGI: 24 (23+1)**  
 **VIT: 28**  
 **INT: 38 (37+1)**  
 **WIS: 61**  
 **LUK: 20 (19+1)**  
 **Unspent Points: 51**

 **Skills**  
 **Acrobatics (Passive) Lvl 4 Exp 91.5%**  
Exercises developing or displaying physical agility, balance and coordination, +2.0% AGI  
Acrobatics provides bonuses when attempting feats such as rolls, vaults and balance.  
Penalties apply while wearing medium or heavy armor.

 **Aikido (Passive) Lvl 15 Exp 56.6%**  
A martial art with a focus on turning the momentum of opponents' attacks against them.  
Passively increases knockback and speed of bare-handed throws, holds, disarms, and redirects by 195%  
This skill confers expertise in falling safely. Save vs. AGI to mitigate falling and knockback damage and avoid [Prone] status.  
While using a traditional weapon: Tanto, Jo, Bokken or Katana, [Aikido] increases the effect of the relevant skill by 19.5%  
Skill level in [Aikido] may not exceed character's [WIS]  
 _The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent slaughter._

 **Bluff (Passive) Lvl 3 Exp 77.6%**  
You know how to lie and shade the truth.  
+9% bonus on all bluff rolls.  
 _Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!_

 **Blunt Weapon Mastery (Passive) Lvl 16 Exp 82.6%**  
Allows user to freely handle blunt weapons.  
160% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons.  
80% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.

 **Clairsentience Blocking (Sustained) Lvl 90 Exp 48.0%**  
The ability to selectively block out clairsentience to prevent sensory overload.  
 _The voices. Someone turn off the voices!_

 **Combat Mapping (Sustained) Lvl 16 Exp 70.3%**  
By the use of controlled proxies a map of the battlefield is created.  
Negates [Stealth] of tagged foes and penalties for blindness.  
Grants limited awareness of zone of control and combat bonuses versus all tagged opponents.

 **Computer Programming (Passive) Lvl 3 Exp 35.0%**  
Allows the user to read, write, debug and use computer programs. +1% INT  
At this level, the user has a BASIC comprehension and will have difficulty with any other programming language.  
 _10 PRINT "Hello World!"_

 **Cooking (Passive) Lvl 4 Exp 57.0%**  
By the combination of raw ingredients tasty meals can be created.  
Eating food can restore The Gamer's HP and MP. Higher quality meals restore more of both.  
 _Healthy foods are good for you._

 **Cryptography, Passive Lvl 11 Exp 18.5%**  
A skill for making and breaking codes and ciphers. +3% INT  
 _A1, B2, C3, no you didn't sink my battleship._

 **Detect Enemies (Passive) Lvl 2 Exp 72.0%**  
A skill to detect hidden enemies.  
2% increase to spot hidden enemies  
 _Do you hear what I hear?_

 **Dodge (Sustained) Lvl 18 Exp 46.9%**  
A dedicated action to avoid an attack. +180% to Agility while dodging  
 _Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee._

 **Entangle (Sustained) Lvl 11 Exp 92.0%**  
The ability to tangle opponents in nets and snares via proxies  
Successfully entangled opponents must save vs. STR or otherwise destroy the entangle to move.  
+110% increase in attack speed with entangles.  
+110% increase in accuracy with entangles.  
 _Come into my web said the spider to the fly._

 **Entomology (Passive) Lvl 5 Exp 0.0%**  
The science of the study of insects.  
 _There are 200 million insects for every human being on Earth_

 **Fashion Design, Passive Lvl 14 Exp 7.3%**  
You know how to design clothes for both utility and appearance. Well designed clothes can provide bonuses to reaction rolls, defense, and other stats.  
 _You look mahvelous, dahling._

 **Finishing Blow (Active) Lvl 10 Exp 80.1%**  
Allows user to strike an incapacitated target for bonus damage.  
250% increase in critical rate.  
1000% increase in attack damage.  
Can only be used on prone opponents.  
 _... and stay down!_

 **Gambling (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%**  
Knowledge of games of chance and stratagems for success. +1% LUK  
 _Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do_

 **Grounding Strike (Active) Lvl 2 Exp 17.9%**  
Knocks the target out of the air. 30% increase in attack damage per foot to ground.  
 _...and knock 'em down._

 **Invertebrate Clairsentience (Sustained) Lvl MAX**  
The ability to receive the sensory input of invertebrates within control range.  
This includes sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, equilibrium and kinesthesia.

 **Invertebrate Control (Sustained) Lvl MAX**  
Grants the ability to mentally command all invertebrates within control range.  
 _When in doubt more bees._

 **Intimidate (Active) Lvl 5 Exp 58.8%**  
A skill to frighten your opponents or get them to act in a way that benefits you.  
Requires a verbal threat or display of prowess. Targets must make a save vs. fear.  
+50% to intimidation rolls. Circumstantial and gear bonuses may apply.  
 _You're a little scary sometimes, you know that?_

 **Knife Mastery (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 15.2%**  
Allows user to freely handle knives.  
10% increase in attack speed with knives.  
5% increase in attack damage with knives.

 **Knife Throwing (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 24.1%**  
Allows user to throw knives.  
10% increase in accuracy with thrown knives.  
5% increase in attack speed with thrown knives.

 **Light Armor Mastery (Passive) Lvl 13 Exp 10.7%**  
You learn how to properly move and fight in Light Armor.  
65% additional armor, 28% decrease in armor fatigue  
 _Lightly armored means light on your feet. Smart._

 **Lingering Command (Sustained) Lvl 25 Exp 80.0%**  
This skill determines how long affected creatures will continue to follow mental commands when no longer controlled.  
Commands linger for 75 minutes.

 **Mental Control Area (Passive) Lvl 23 Exp 23.9%**  
This skill determines the ZoC, Zone of Control, of the character's active mental powers.  
ZoC is 20 meter radius per level, currently 460 meters

 **Multitasking (Passive) Lvl MAX**  
The ability to manage 10 to the 48th power concurrent mental operations at the same time.  
This ability is limited by the input and output channels available to the character.

 **Physical Resistance (Passive) Lvl 2 Exp 30.5%**  
The body's durability increases and you take less damage. 6% decrease in damage from physical attacks.

 **Power Strike (Active) Lvl 3 Exp 64.0%**  
Strikes the target with strong force.  
45% increase in critical rate.  
150% increase in attack damage.  
 _Batter up!_

 **Rising Strike (Active) Lvl 10 Exp 0.9%**  
Knocks the target into the air. + 150% increase to knockback.  
 _Set 'em up…_

 **Sense Processing (Passive) Lvl 21 Exp 73.9%**  
The ability to process non-human senses without backlash. Chance of backlash increases with more inhuman senses.

 **Sprint (Sustained) Lvl 7 Exp 19.0%**  
A skill for running at full speed.  
+35% increase to running speed.  
 _Don't run until it hurts. Run until the pain stops._

 **Singing (Passive) Lvl 5 Exp 42.0%**  
With Singing you can impress and inspire audiences.  
+50% to Performance checks, +50% to Busking  
 _I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony_

 **Stealth (Passive) Lvl 5 Exp 71.2%**  
A skill to remain hidden and avoid enemy notice  
10% bonus to remain hidden while stationary  
5% bonus to remain hidden while moving  
You cannot use Stealth when already spotted by an enemy.

 **Swarm Clone (Sustained) Lvl 4 Exp 22.6%**  
The use of proxies to create decoys within control area.  
40% bonus to quality of created decoys.  
 _All warfare is based on deception_.

 **Swarm of Doom (Sustained) Lvl 7 Exp 55.2%**  
The ability to inflict continuous damage on all opponents inside control area via proxies  
+70% increase in physical damage done by proxies.  
+70% increase in poison damage done by proxies.  
 _If at first you don't succeed, try more bees._

 **Tactics (Passive) Lvl 7 Exp 31.6%**  
The skill for coordinating the actions of individuals and small groups in combat.  
Tactics provides combat bonuses to all team members executing the plan.  
 _Know thy self, know they enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories._

 **Inventory**  
 **Taylor's Usual Wardrobe**  
Typical outfit worn to Winslow  
«Thrift Shop Hoodie», «Bland Shirt», «Old Jeans», «Clean Socks», «Tattered Sneakers», «Blue Jogging Bra», «Pink Hearts Panties», «Smeared Glasses», and «Cheap Watch»  
Fashion Rating = Unfashionable, -20% to initial reaction rolls, +10% to pity rolls.  
 _Aren't you a sad little thing?_

 **Aluminum Bat**  
Status=Damaged

 **Dragonfang Earring**  
+25% Fire Resistance

 **Lady Bug Costume**  
Fashion Rating = Impressive. +50% to Reaction Rolls, +25% to Intimidate, -20% to Stealth.  
Moderate Protection vs. Slashing Damage.  
Moderate Protection vs. Piercing Damage.  
Minor Protection vs. Crushing Damage.  
Currently using Linen cape and 3 skirt-nets

 **Utility Belt**  
Pepper Spray, Epi Pen (x3), Screamer, Cold light stick x2, Keychain flashlight, WD40, Duct Tape, Signal flares (x3). Earth-Bet First aid kit, Multitool, Lighter, Notepad and pen, Chap Stick, Tampons, Spare Glasses, Latex Gloves, Silk Cords

 **Cash:** $210


	42. Tattletale's Character Sheet - Arc 4

Special bonus! Tattletale's character sheet as of joining the party

* * *

 **Sarah Livsey aka Lisa Wilbourn aka Tattletale**  
 **Level 28**

 **Titles**

 **Active: Smart Ass**  
+20% to Taunt rolls.  
 _Better than a dumb ass._

 **Inactive: Know-It-All**  
+10% on all INT-based skill rolls.  
 _You're almost as smart as you think you are._

 **Stats**  
STR: 10  
AGI: 20  
VIT: 14  
INT: 59 (58+1)  
WIS: 29  
LUK: 9

 **Skills**

 **Acting (Sustained) Lvl 2 Exp 66.4%**  
The art and profession of playing a role.  
+20% to Performance rolls, +20% to Busking.  
 _Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over._

 **Banter (Sustained) Lvl 8 Exp 37.1**  
The ability to bandy words in a mocking or teasing fashion  
+24% to taunt rolls, +16% to seduction rolls.  
 _When you say one thing, but mean their mother._

 **Cold Reading Lvl 9 Exp 5.1%**  
The ability to read body language and microgestures.  
+27% to detect lies, +18% to detect emotions.  
 _I don't need to read your mind._

 **Computer Programming (Passive) Lvl 3 Exp 77.8%**  
Allows the user to read, write, debug and use computer programs. +1% INT  
 _Micro and Soft don't meet my standards._

 **Fashion (Passive) Lvl 5 Exp 9.6%**  
You know how to dress to impress.  
Well designed clothes can provide bonuses to reaction rolls, defense, and other stats.  
 _Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak._

 **Intimidate (Active) Lvl 1 Exp 42.5%**  
A skill to frighten your opponents or get them to act in a way that benefits you.  
Requires a verbal threat or display of prowess. Targets must make a save vs. fear.  
+10% to intimidation rolls. Circumstantial and gear bonuses may apply.  
 _Strong women intimidate boys... and excite men._

 **Finance (Passive) Lvl 11 Exp 64.2**  
The management of large amounts of money by governments, corporations and individuals  
+33% speed and accuracy of financial analysis  
+11% to barter rolls  
 _Show me the money._

 **Find Weakness (Sustained) Lvl 7 Exp 10.2%**  
Ability to locate pressure points and flaws in beings, materials and organizations.  
+14% chance to locate weakness  
+21% attack damage for direct attacks on weak points.  
+10.5% attack damage for delegated attacks on weak points.  
 _Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!_

 **Insight (Passive) Lvl MAX**  
The ability to make great leaps of logic based on small clues.  
Overuse of this ability can result in headaches, migraines, aneurysms, catatonia and death  
Insight acts as a situational bonus on many skills

 **Insight Blocking (Sustained) Lvl 46 Exp 48.1**  
The ability to damp down [Insight] and not follow up on obvious clues.

 **Pistol Mastery (Passive) Lvl 2 EXP 4.7%**  
Allows user to freely use pistols.  
20% increase in accuracy with pistols.  
10% increase in attack speed with pistols.  
 _Guns don't kill people, but they make it easier._

 **Persuasion (Passive) Lvl 2 Exp 96.4%**  
The ability to bring someone around to your point of view.  
20% increase in Persuasion attempts.  
 _Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggy' until you can find a rock._


	43. Factions 4-5

Factions 4.5 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Factions 4.5**

"While I really am serious about owing you both, I need to ask for your help first." Really? Is she trying to pull a Nigerian Prince(ss) on us?

"What kind of help?" Taylor sounds even more suspicious of this turn of events than I feel.

Sarah stares at me. Serious, her eyes are just _so_ green. I blink and she's inspecting Taylor's masked face. "You may as well take off your mask, Lady Bug. I already know your identity." Does she really think we'd fall for that? "More importantly, my 'employer' already knows your identity - Taylor Hebert," fuck, "daughter of Danny Hebert, currently enrolled at Winslow High School."

"Was that a threat?" Sarah should be happy she can't see Taylor's face. Her scary voice seems to have gotten even more impressive lately. "You know there are rules about that. They're unwritten, but they're pretty damn clear. Secret identities are off limits."

While the aptly named Tattletale is distracted, I silently activate «Observe». It may be sketchy, but hey, she started it.

«A mischievous teenager hiding from her past. Civilian identity of the Parahuman villainess known as Tattletale, member of the Undersiders. Apparently possesses Thinker powers.»

That wasn't very useful. But it _does_ tell me that her real name is a pressure point. Time to play hardball. There's a certain meaningfully careful tone that should work here. A few of the D &D geeks at Winslow say it makes me sound like a Ventrue. Not really sure what that means, but it should work here. "Do you really want to be naming names, Miss Sarah Livsey?"

She _smiles_ at me, looking more amused than anything. "Well, I guess that's fair. Which makes it your turn. My 'employer' also suspects that you're James Barron." Dammit, how? And what's with that emphasis on 'employer'? "While he isn't sure yet, he will be soon. I can never keep what I know from him for long. I'm not here to blackmail you. I'm here to warn you. Given enough time I probably could have worked out your identities, but I'm not your problem. It's my employer."

"Who is your employer and why shouldn't we shoot the messenger?" Sarah is really getting on Taylor's nerves.

"His name is Coil. He pretends to be a minor player, but he has a powerful Thinker ability." Are you threatening us? After you saw us beat Lung? "He wants to force you to work for him, like how he did me. If you help me get away from him, I can help you stay out of his grasp." Oh. That changes things. If she's being honest. "I'm at your mercy here. With your power I'm basically standing in a minefield that is completely under your control." She never drops eye contact (such as it is) with Taylor while subtly gesturing at the insects buzzing around her and… are those black widows on her socks? When did they get there?

«New Quest Alert: Save Tattletale»  
« Help Tattletale escape from Coil's clutches without getting trapped yourself»  
« Reward: 25,000 XP, Increased reputation with Undersiders, and a new teammate.»  
« Failure: Capture, imprisonment, torture, forced servitude, and possible death of yourself, Taylor Hebert, Tattletale, and multiple innocent parties.»  
« Bonus Goals: Remove Coil as a threat by any means necessary.»  
« Bonus Reward: 50,000 XP»  
« Accept?»  
« Yes» «No»

Guess that confirms it. Torture? Possible death of Taylor and Sarah? Innocent Parties? Sounds like Coil isn't playing by the rules. Even without the XP reward, removing him would be my pleasure. Now how to get Taylor on board...

"«Yes»." I know that inflection. Taylor must have the quest too. That was easy. "We'll help you. Beetle Knight, I think we should trust her."

It'll be a lot harder to work with her if we don't trust her. "«Yes», I agree." A muttered command, a single flick, and my helmet disappears. "James Barron at your service. You'll have to tell me how you figured it out sometime." And then I can make sure no one else does. Seriously, one day out in costume and villains are already figuring out my identity.

"And sometime I'll tell you." Sarah's grin promises more than that. No, I must be reading too much into it.

Taylor detaches her face mask, leaving her helmet in place. Kinda wish I had that option. Her face can only be seen from one angle. "And I am Taylor Hebert."

"My real name is Sarah Livsey, but I don't use that name any longer. My friends call me Lisa." Sa- ah, Lisa's smile makes it clear she wants to consider us friends.

Taylor isn't quite ready for that. "Nice to meet you, Lisa. Now, tell us everything you know about Coil." I know that glare. Lisa should really start talkin- Taylor suddenly flinches harshly. "Oh shit. Damn."

"Taylor!" Crap. "I mean, Lady B-" Wait, everyone here already knows, and if anyone else is watching, kinda too late by now. My partner is in pain. "Screw it. Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Just a cramp." She bends and starts kneading her calf.

"Muscles spasms," Lisa offers. "She's not a Brute like you. You both ran all the way here. Most people can't just sprint half-way across the city like that." Oh, crap. "A rub down should help, ice or rest would also work. You need to cut yourself some slack." It's odd to see a normal, if rather pretty, girl lecturing an armored superheroine. "Pushing yourself like this will only lead to injury. As it is you might have to take a few days off to heal. Lay down and I'll see what I can do."

That's nice of her, offering to lend a hand. Trying to handle something like that for yourself just isn't as effective, and there's only two options here. Getting help from someone of the op- of the gender you find attractive is awkward, to say the least. I don't think Taylor would be happy with me even offering.

"Thank you, but no. James, would you mind? Please?"

...what? But... girl… legs… guy… legs… awkward… Oh! Taylor thinks I'm gay. Eh, happened before. Actually, I think Mom thinks I'm gay. Would explain the rainbow colored Bert and Ernie shirt she got me last Christmas. Taking care of Taylor's leg is still awkward for _me_ , but she needs my help. "Of course."

I crack my knuckles while Taylor stretches out face down on the gravel. Really not necessary. I could have done this with her seated, there was no need to go all prone. Still, it is a little easier from this angle. The cloth is thicker than expected under my fingers. Oh wow. Considering how many layers are in the fabric, it's impressive I can feel the knot through them all. This will be a challenge.

Taylor and Lisa chat for a bit while I struggle at Taylor's leg. Apparently Lisa's got some kind of kickass enhanced intuition but likes to joke about being psychic, she doesn't know how Coil beat her to Taylor's identity, and Taylor's legs are really toned. Also, it's rather difficult to ease the tension out of her calf while Lisa keeps riling her up.

«A skill has been created through a special action.»  
« A skill to sooth aching muscles, [Massage], has been created.»  
« Massage (Passive) Lvl 1 Exp 0.0%»  
« Massage is an ancient skill that allows you to take fatigue away from the flesh of humans. It's possible to cure body or joint related negative status effects.»  
« Gets rid of 0.05% fatigue per second.»  
« _You're welcome._ »

"So tell me how did Coil…" Everything suddenly clicks. The knot I could barely effect before practically melts under my fingers. "Oooh. Aaaah. Oh, don't stop."

«Relationship with Taylor Hebert has increased!»

Lisa falls over laughing. "Maybe you two should get a room."

I want my helmet back. I'm probably glowing right now. "Is…" this okay? Is she okay with me… She's… I'm… "that better?" I chicken out. I can't possibly admit I know this is… enjoyable and offer to continue. At least it should take too long… 0.05% per second, 100% total, divide, again by 60, 33.3 repeating… That's over half an hour. Not sure I can… listen to that for that long. Not without difficulty.

"It's better, but still hurts, please keep going." Does she not hear what she's saying? "And you, grow up. Regardless of my cramp, this is serious."

"Wow, that's…" Lisa snaps at me, suddenly more serious than I've seen her. "I _knew_ you were underselling with the whole Thinker/Brute combo thing. You're a Trump aren't you?" Well, that's part of it. "You're getting new powers when you need them." That would be so much easier. "No… that's Uber's schtick. You get them as you _use_ them. However…" She shifts her attention to Taylor. "You just mumbled 'intimidate' and suddenly got scary. That doesn't match your powers." Kinda does. Swarms of insects of all kinds, completely under her control. Scary fits. "Plus both of you did a tandem flip-flop in your attitudes toward me. Not to mention the way _both_ of you keep flicking your eyes away. What are you two seeing that I'm not?"

"That's why you wanted us to unmask," Taylor accuses. "You can read us better when you can see our faces."

"Looks like I've got some competition for the Miss Sherlock Holmes contest." Lisa seems more amused than anything. "You're right. Body language gives me a lot to go on, but I can read more from faces. Now that I've answered your questions, it's your turn."

"It's not really my secret to tell. Should we tell her?" That's a surprise. Wasn't she against letting _heroes_ know about my powers?

«New Quest Alert: To Trust or Not to Trust?»  
« Choose whether or not to trust Tattletale with the truth about your powers.»  
« 'Trust' Reward: 2,500 XP, increased relationship with Lisa Wilbourn, improved team synergy»  
« 'Not' Reward: 2,500 XP, increased relationship with Taylor Hebert, improved rate of relationship increases with Taylor Hebert»

That's new. Essentially free XP, and a reminder that it's best to trust your teammates. Relationship boosts are nice and all, but if we're already going to be working with Lisa it only makes sense. I dismiss the window and see Lisa leaning forward inquisitively. Her top… I turn back to Taylor. "With her power, I don't think we can stop her from finding out. Besides we both got the same quest, didn't we?"

«Quest Completed!»  
« You have earned 2,500 XP»

« Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has increased!»  
« Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has advanced from 'Peer' to 'Friend'»

"We did." Good. We're on the same page about saving Lisa. Now how on earth do I begin explaining my powers? 'I'm a videogame character. No, really. I promise, I'm not Myrddin-level crazy.' "I'll tell her. Would you please do both my legs and up to my thighs?"

...yeah, she thinks I'm gay. No other way a girl _lets_ me touch her like that, let along _ask_ me to while knowing I could be… interested. Maybe I shouldn't do this until I've… corrected her? Preferably when Lisa isn't around? Or should I just calm down and help her? "You should. She overextended herself. You're not just relieving that cramp, you're actually repairing torn muscles. That's a low-grade healing ability." Well, if the Thinker say to keep going, I guess I should.

"It's a very limited healing ability. It's mostly good for fatigue, but it will get faster with practice." If it gets another 0.05% per level, it would only take 20 seconds at level 100 to fix whatever counts as '100% fatigue'. Can't feel the knot here any more, so I shift to her other calf.

«Massage's level increased by 1!»

"Very well, I'll tell you about our powers and you'll tell us everything about Coil. We'll do everything we can to help you get free and stop him. Agreed?" Taylor is remarkably business-like despite everything.

"Agreed. You scratch my back." Maybe Lisa needs a massage later? "I scratch yours. Your secrets are safe with me. It's all copacetic." The words fall out of her mouth a bit faster than necessary.

"«Invite Lisa»," intones Taylor. There's a long pause. Lisa gives me a questioning look. "You have to do it, James."

Ah. Guess that's a Gamer-only thing. "«Invite Lisa Wilbourn»."

Lisa screams. "What. The. Fuck?! This… This is…"

"Bullshit?" Taylor and I chorus, purely on accident. I almost call out 'jinx', but it's not really the time.

"Yes, glorious bullshit."

«Sarah "Lisa Wilbourn" Livsey has joined the party.»

« Mini Tutorial Start»  
« Teams»  
« Now that you have a party of three members The Gamer has the ability to form a Team.»  
« While only active party of members can gain and increase stats and skills, forming a Team has several advantages»  
« To create a Team, The Gamer must propose a Team Name and a minimum of two additional party members must accept.»  
« As a team you are more than individuals. The actions of each team member impact the [Reputation] of the team.»

"Pure, glorious, 100% concentrated bullshit." The dumbfounded look on Lisa's face as she stares at her invisible screen is oddly satisfying.

"James, it says you have to do it."

"I saw that. Just thinking what to put there. I just don't want another lame name like «Tutorial?», and we've never really discussed team names." I don't want us to end up with the first thing to pop into my head. We'd end up with something reflexively rhyme-y ('Team Dream') or ill-advised ('Team Threesome'). Maybe something more along the same theme as our cape names? Insect Kingdom? As far as I can tell, both of Taylor's calves are perfect, so… I do her thighs now? I tentatively slide my hands past her knee. She doesn't protest, but I'm stopping well short of anything… objectionable.

"Monarchs," Lisa suggests. "It works for both your insect and Lady/Knight themes."

Taylor approves almost instantly. "I like it."

Can't think of anything better. It's got some gravitas to it, but doesn't sound too aggressive. "Agreed. «Create Team Monarchs»."

Beat. "«Yes»." Lisa verbally approves as Taylor jabs a finger at thin air.

«Name Approved»  
« Team Monarchs Created»

Shouldn't I be getting-

«Quest Completed!» «You have earned 7,500 XP» «You've gained 1 level.» «Relationship with Taylor Hebert has increased!» «Relationship with Taylor Hebert has changed from 'Partner' to 'Teammate'» «Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has increased!» «As you have chosen to create your own team, [Secret Base Key] has been added to your inventory.» «Use the [Secret Base Key] in a safe location to create a permanent portal to a Illusion Barrier and continue Team Mini Tutorial»

Ah. There it is. Most of it isn't particularly important, but the last bit is interesting. I'm almost curious enough to activate it here, but 'permanent' and 'secret' don't mix well with 'random rooftop'.

"So your power is basically being a videogame character." Lisa ends my musing with a disbelieving shake of her head. "You shouldn't be embarrassed about it, though. Myrddin is mocked because he says his powers are magic, not because he dresses up as a wizard. It's not even like his powers have the weirdest theme out there. Lung turns into a literal dragon: wings, scales, and fire-breath included." I think she's been building up this rant for awhile now. "There's no way that was random. There's another cape, Taurus, who turns into a minotaur, horns and all. Powers are weird. Hydrokinesis doesn't make any sense."

"Or that I can only control bugs?" Taylor's interruption comes at the perfect time. Lisa was really working herself up there.

«Massage's level increased by 1!»

"Exactly… wait. Not just bugs? All invertebrates? Really underselling yourself with 'Lady Bug'. Regardless, the point is a parahuman's subconscious seems to guide how their powers manifest when they trigger. There's not good scientific reason for a telekinetic to be able to control only water, or be unable to control water inside living creatures." I've actually run into this line of thought before. Oddly enough, it's the cornerstone of the best reasoned argument I've seen for powers being magical. "It has to be a subconscious block. James, your powers are about augmenting yourself and others. _You_ gave it the videogame theme."

I guess tabletop games would make even less sense as a theme. What would I do, manifest sheets of paper that keep track of people's stats? "It could be worse. At least I like RPGs and not dating sim games." Taylor and Lisa both give me a dirty look. I grin back, switching legs one last time.

"Not to change the subject or anything, but I brought something to give you two. It's nothing compared to what I suspect you've just given me, but it's a start." Lisa opens a large paper bag and pulls out two lunch boxes. She hands Taylor one with Alexandria plastered all over it. She slides a plain tin box over by me. It looks to be good quality though. Lisa gives me an apologetic look. "All they had left was Armsmaster. Each has two thousand dollars in it." Lisa pauses, then sighs. "I have to be honest. It's not even from me. Coil thought he could lure you into joining the Undersiders by showing just how lucrative being a villain can be. But money is money, and I'm sure you two can find a good use for it. James should at least finish his costume."

Taylor pops hers open. Holy crap. That's a lot of money. She thumbs through her money, making happy noises. "Oh, the skill books we can buy with this!"

"...I'm going to have to call home and let them know I'll be out late." That's not thigh. I pull my hands back to safe territory. Technically, those muscles could also be sore, but I'm not going there without an engraved invitation.

"Skill books?!" Lisa blinks. "You can get powers by reading books? And you're sharing that power? That's just…"

"Bullshit!" "Bullshit!" I'm half a second behind Taylor this time.

"No, this isn't just bullshit. Bullshit is Scion speaking again. This is the kind of bullshit that makes Scion say 'bullshit'." «First Aid» is telling me that Lisa is seconds away from hyperventilating.

"Try saying «Status»." Taylor's tone is much too innocent.

Lisa's smugness is gone, instead there's a hint of trepidation in her voice. Looks like she's learning. "«Status»." Her eyes bug. "No fucking way."

As Lisa starts gesturing Taylor leans back to look at me. "I think my legs are good now." She's a little red in the face, but smiling. Crap, she noticed. I stand back and offer her an apologetic smile. "I was going to suggest introducing her to some zombies, but now I think we should hit some used bookstores."

"Used?" Lisa replies, but she's clearly distracted by the screens she's browsing. "I drop four grand on you, and you're going to buy _used_ books? No, we're hitting the major bookstores. Better selection, and anything they don't have we can order. If we run out of cash, I've got my own savings. It's just money." She locks eyes with each of us before continuing seriously. "Listen carefully: Coil doesn't play by the rules. He recruited me at gunpoint. When, not if, he finds out about James' powers, he'll do anything to control you. Torture, rape, and murder are the _best case scenario_. Your friends, family, even pets will be in danger. If we can _buy_ powers, then we spend the damn money."

When she puts it that way, neither of us can argue against heading to the less touristy end of the Boardwalk for some shopping. Taylor suggests we take turns changing between the dumpsters in the alley while the others act as look outs. On the way to the stores, Lisa insists on hearing about every skill we have and how we got them on the way there. I think she's hurt herself laughing about «Fool's Act». When I explain how I got «Intimidate», she changes to asking for more information about Winslow. Taylor doesn't seem comfortable talking about it, but the chance to get a Thinker's help on it is priceless so I explain things as delicately as I can. She's still asking questions when we reach our first shop.

New books just don't smell as booky, but it's still amazing the variety of books on hand. We eventually split up to take on different areas. Even if we don't have the INT to learn everything we want right away, I can just save the books in my inventory for as soon as we can learn them. Taylor takes on the Home and Science sections. Lisa decides that Self-Help and References are a good place to start. Since I'm apparently the only one who can use «Observe», I'm supposed to check out the rest of the store. We loot the crap out of three stores, finding less new stuff worth getting each time, but not a single one of them is wasted time.

Books can get heavy, especially since we're getting three of a lot of things. Lisa even gets her first point of STR hauling a pile of history texts. We end up with volumes on every subject that seems fairly useful: math, programming languages, ciphers, strategy, chemistry, literature theory, every language in popular use around here (and a few that aren't), the newest edition of _Grey's Anatomy_ , locksmithing, specialized cookbooks (I notice Taylor grab on vegetarian recipes), entomology, textiles, a book about hunting with snares, layman's law guides, self-hypnosis, speedreading (not every interesting book offers a prompt to instantly learn it), music theory, sleight of hand, meditation, and even dancing. By the end I swear we're just grabbing every skill book we find. We end up getting so many books, I'm a little surprised the counters hold up under it all.

After each store we find an alley and shove the lot into my inventory for later, but there's no way I'm missing Lisa's first skill book. "The sooner you learn «Capoeira» the sooner you can master it, right?"

"Uh huh." Okay, I'm incapable of fooling the Thinker. Not really a surprise. "I'm not sure what the trick is, but you do have a point." She takes the book I'm offering. "This isn't going to hurt, and I don't need to sit down or anything… what's the trick?"

It's odd seeing Lisa's smirk on Taylor's face. "Oh, you'll figure it out."

Lisa gives us both a very suspicious look before staring at the book for a long moment. "«Yes»." She shrieks when the book lights up, throwing it away as she dives for cover behind a dumpster. The sparks from the dissolving paperback follow behind her. Not exactly what I was expecting, but Taylor and I both have to laugh as Lisa crawls back into sight, pulling a burger wrapper from her hair. "You _do_ know I just learned how to kick your asses, right?"

* * *

Game Mechanics:

James: «+3 Massage»  
Lisa: «+1 STR», «+1 Capoeira»  
Author's Note: Shopping scenes suck, but it would be completely unrealistic to _not_ have them go nuts at this point. Just one more to go this arc.


	44. Role Playing 5-1

**Role Playing 5.1**

Once Tattletale and I both approved of James naming our new team the Monarchs the expected pop-up barrage happened.

«Quest Completed!»  
«You have earned 7,500 XP»  
«Relationship with James Barron has increased!»  
«Relationship with James Barron has changed from 'Partner' to 'Teammate'»  
«Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has increased!»

I felt a bit disappointed that I hadn't leveled, but I had expected things to slow down now that I was level twenty-six. The relationship changes were nice, but I noticed that Lisa's status had increased, but hadn't changed types. While 'Lisa' stared at the pop-ups she'd received and started explaining that James's power had a videogame theme because his unconscious mind chose that theme, I flipped over to the relationships tab. Lisa was still a 'Peer'. Was that a bad sign?

Lisa picked up a large paper shopping bag that my bugs had noted as having two metal boxes inside it. "Not to change the subject or anything, but I brought something to give you two. It's nothing compared to what I suspect you've just given me, but it's a start." She opened the bag and pulled out two lunch boxes. She handed a plain grey tin to James and gave me a little kiddie Alexandria lunchbox. She offered an apologetic smile to James. "All they had left was Armsmaster. Each has two thousand dollars in it." She paused and sighed dramatically. "I have to be honest. It's not even from me. Coil thought he could lure you into joining the Undersiders by showing just how lucrative being a villain can be. But money is money, and I'm sure you two can find a good use for it. James should at least finish his costume."

I popped mine open. I'd thought that two hundred and ten dollars was a lot of money. I'd never seen so much money in one place outside the movies. I thumbed through the cash and said the first thing that popped into my head. "Oh, the skill books we can buy with this!"

As soon as I heard what I said, I wanted to take it back. I sounded greedy and shallow. Granted, a part of me was already making a mental list of books to buy, but the money was from Coil. I should probably consider the moral implications of accepting his cash, but was it any different than using the money that Legion Zombie had dropped? I wasn't going to report that to the IRS, and I could put Coil's bad money to good use.

"I'm going to have to call home and let them know I'll be out late," said James.

Whoa. Hand. Hand on my ass. A hand that jumped away like James had touched a hot stove. The part of me that was relaxing and enjoying the massage weighed his actions and decided it was an accident. The main part of me stayed focused on the conversation with Lisa, so the only reaction I had was a blush. Apparently my ability to «Multitask» did not completely cover my automatic responses.

Lisa didn't seem to notice, but she was distracted. The look of shock and surprise on her face was priceless. "Skill books?! You can get powers by reading books? And you're sharing that power? That's just…"

"Bullshit!" I chimed in. This time I beat James by a smidge.

"No, this isn't just bullshit." Lisa had a good disbelief rant going. "Bullshit is Scion speaking again. This is the kind of bullshit that makes Scion say 'bullshit'."

"Try saying «Status»." This was too easy.

Lisa obviously smelled more bullshit, because the self-satisfied smirk on her face had finally faded, but she only hesitated a moment. "«Status»… No fucking way." Lisa stared off into space at windows that I couldn't see.

While blowing Lisa's mind was fun, it was time to get serious. We had important stuff to do, and I didn't need to be laying around getting my legs rubbed. Sure, it felt good, but James wasn't my personal masseuse. Not to mention that his hands had already strayed once. I trusted him, but he was a teenaged boy. "I think my legs are good now." More accurately they didn't hurt as bad, but close enough. I caught him looking at me, and I could feel my face glowing. Damn it. If he could be professional, then I could. I needed to focus. "I was going to suggest introducing her to some zombies, but now I think we should hit some used bookstores."

"Used?" Lisa might be distracted, but she still managed to pack a load of scorn into her tone. "I drop four grand on you, and you're going to buy used books? No, we're hitting the major bookstores. Better selection, and anything they don't have we can order. If we run out of cash, I've got my own savings. It's just money." She looked from me to James. "Listen carefully: Coil doesn't play by the rules. He recruited me at gunpoint. When, not if, he finds out about James' powers, he'll do anything to control you. Torture, rape, and murder are the best case scenario. Your friends, family, even pets will be in danger. If we can buy powers, then we spend the damn money."

I gave her a firm nod to show that I heard her loud and clear. "You're absolutely right." I stood up and dusted the rocks off my costume. "Let's get changed. We've got some serious shopping to do.

I was really tempted to summon up a cloud of mostly butterflies and do a cheesy cartoon costume change. However, I wanted to make sure it worked first. I didn't want to flash everything I had, not that I had much to hide, but unlike James I knew what the word modesty meant. Instead James and I took turns changing in an alleyway between two smelly dumpsters with my cape acting as a changing screen.

Lisa grilled us about skills all the way to the boardwalk where we hit three separate bookstores and stocked up. I already had ideas on what skill books to get. Talking with Lisa added to them. At the top of my list were any books that would give me instant levels to skills that I already had. Those were easy enough to find: books on various different programming languages to books «Computer Programming»; books on knitting, crochet, needlepoint and others to boost «Fashion Design»; books on military strategy for «Tactics», and many, many more. «Cheerleading» turned out to be a subskill of «Acrobatics», which made sense in hindsight.

After boosting my current skills, my second priority was acquiring the skills I would need to opt out of high school. «Mathematics» and «History» books were easy to find. Chemistry turned out to be two skills: «Chemistry» that covered the theory and «Alchemy» that covered the practical side of things. Even better the «Alchemy» skill allowed the making of potions! Unfortunately all the 'formula' that came with the chemistry books were for mundane compounds. Books on English grammar showed up as «Writing», but books on literature didn't show up as skill books at all. Biology also turned out to be difficult. It showed up as dozens of subskills including «Entomology», but I couldn't find any book that gave the «Biology» skill that James had earned from going to class.

Other than my school subjects, there were only a few skills I wanted: «Anatomy», «First Aid» and «Trapping». They were were easy to find, but Tattle had more skill books to add to everyone's lists: «Chinese» so we could talk among ourselves and build it up. «Meditation» because it boosted WIS. «Dancing» because it boosted VIT. «Sleight of Hand» so we could be sneakier about accessing hidden windows when people were watching. «Speedreading» and «Hypnosis» because they were bullshit. Actually, I was the only one who had the WIS to learn «Hypnosis», but she insisted I pick it up.

James and I both blew through all of Coil's bribe money by the third stop, and that was counting the substantial bulk purchase discount that Lisa negotiated at the stores. Lisa was cool about covering the difference. She acknowledged we could have got cheaper at a used bookstores, but improving our skills and saving time were both vastly more important than money. She insisted we keep our personal spending money. Mentally I noted that I owed her owed her three hundred and eighty and some change. I fully intended to repay her eventually. James went over by a similar amount and from the look we shared, he also planned to repay Lisa – eventually.

We had so many books that we had to store them in James's inventory between stops. When we were finally done shopping for skill books, we found a quiet alleyway to memorize them. Watching Lisa learn her first skill was so very entertaining. She knew we were up to something, but was still freaked when the book in her hand started to glow. She tossed the book one way and dove the other ending up behind a dumpster. She emerged a little later with a burger wrapper stuck to her hair. When we laughed, she threatened to kick both our asses with her newly acquired «Capoeira» skill.

After that first light show, we got smarter. James opened an empty Illusion Barrier for us, and we had a good old-fashioned book-burning party. Except when the books burned up, they burned themselves into our brains. Learning one skill from one book was a miracle of bullshit. Learning a second skill was a head rush. Sitting there in a circle learning book after book was… surreal. I could only compare it to the time after I triggered when I was coming to grips with my powers, and they kept dosing me with different drugs. Knowledge was different from intelligence, but I felt smarter, filled to bursting with new facts, recipes, dance steps, chemical formula, military strategies and much more. I could recite every battle of Napoleon, and tell which sides made mistakes and why. I knew how to dance every move of the lambada; something that made my cheeks flush merely to think about, not that I would dance something so… slutty. I'd been struggling with geometry before, but after absorbing seven math books I could do calculus in my head.

It probably also helped that I actually was smarter. I'd learned thirteen new skills, bringing me to a round fifty skills in total. To do that I'd had to use my saved points. I'd raised my INT to 52, giving me two free slots so I wouldn't miss any skills acquired through doing things. Sure, it ran the risk of me learning a lame skill like «Dishwashing», but I didn't want to miss useful skills. Being maxed on skills had already cost me «First Aid». Being sure to have slots open had earned me «Bluff» and «Sprint». The possibility of learning a useless skill was just a risk I had to run.

I think we all felt a little giddy by the time we were done. Lisa suggested that we first fill James's inventory with emergency supplies and take a break to eat some food and plan. With addition of a short detour so that James and I could phone home we agreed. My father was not happy that I was out, or very accepting of my excuse that it was 'hero stuff', but there was little he could do when I hung up on him. James got luckier when he called home. No one was there, so he just left a message on the answering machine.

Lisa led us on a whirlwind shopping trip. First stop was for cellphones. We both got one cutting-edge internet capable phone for regular use and two cheapass burner phones. Next stop was an electronics store where she picked us both up little palm-sized recording devices that cost a bundle.

James looked his over. "Are these for dealing with Winslow?"

"Probably not. I have a plan for dealing with Winslow that will work faster than trying to record an incriminating conversation. These are for general use. Both of you need to keep these with you at all times. You never know when you'll hear something you want to be able to prove later."

"What's the plan for Winslow?" While I liked the concept of a better plan, I wanted details and not vague promises.

"Later, over dinner. I want to hit one more store before the evening rush."

At Crazy Dave's Army Surplus she loaded up on survival gear: bottled water, three fully-loaded medical kits (the kind the sell for In-Case-Of-Endbringer), sleeping bags, air mattresses, tents, urban camo suits in our sizes, and more. At my suggestion we also got rope. It was heavier than what I could make with spider silk, but it would work against Legion Zombie. When we got to the MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), James started slowing Lisa down by reading the small print.

Lisa snatched some MREs off the shelf. "I got you covered. These four meals..." she showed them to James "… are lacto-ovo vegetarian friendly. I'll make sure to stock extra. We good?"

"Yeah." James nodded. "That's all I wanted."

Lisa was done with stocking up on food and survival gear. She led us to a different part of the store where she bought cases of .38 ammo. She checked out, paid in cash, and didn't get carded. I wasn't entirely happy with all the ammunition. I knew about the gun in her purse. I'd quietly removed my bugs from it earlier without telling her, but did she intend for us to use guns as well?

Outside we transferred all of it to James's inventory. "How much ammo do you need?" He must have shared my reservations about guns.

"I've owned a pistol for a while. I've never had to use it. I carry it for emergencies. My character sheet put a number on my skill, «Pistol Mastery 2.» Honestly, that's embarrassing. I'm not going to stop carrying a gun. I've already got the skill, and it's a good holdout weapon. But if I'm going to carry it, I'm going to know how to use it properly."

I still wasn't entirely happy with her declaration that she would be using a gun, but guns were good enough for Miss Militia. I also knew about the shotgun that my father kept in his closet, so who was I to judge? "So… gun control is hitting what you're aiming at?"

"Just so." Lisa nodded her agreement, and took a deep breath. She looked both of us over critically. "While Taylor's costume is impressive, you both could use a fashion overhaul in your daily wear, but not tonight. Let's get food. Hmm, it's Monday. There's a good Thai place nearby, and you both like Thai."

I frowned a little at her presumption at telling me I like Thai. It was true, but I would have liked to have been asked. Her comment about a fashion overhaul wasn't very flattering either, but she was annoyingly correct about that as well. Maybe it was because I'd leveled up «Fashion Design», but I was acutely aware that I was dressed to unimpress. Neither dinner nor clothes were worth arguing over, so I simply agreed. "Sure."

"I like Thai?" asked James. "...as long as they don't fry it in grease."

We ended up eating at Siam Palace. I'd never been there before, and it was certainly a couple of steps up from Fugly Bob's. We were met at the door by a hostess in a fancy dress who showed us to a booth with a clean white tablecloth. A waitress almost immediately appeared with our silverware and took our drink orders. Soft oriental music came from hidden speakers. I checked out the kitchen and found it had less than the average number of bugs. Their largest insect problem was flies that had probably come in from the alleyway behind them which was crawling with maggots. I took care of their bug problem by feeding the flies to the local spiders. The menu wasn't pure Thai. They crossed over into the Japanese with some sushi items. Lisa had Mee krob and chicken satay. James had pad Thai. I opted for the pad thai as well, but with chicken in mine.

Once our waitress departed Lisa spoke in «Chinese». "Our waitress really is Thai, unlike the cook, but no one close to us speaks «Chinese» so we can speak freely."

James nodded. "And work on our «Chinese» at the same time. Win-win."

"Good," I replied in «Chinese» trying out the language. It felt pretty natural. I also approved of the multitasking. That's why I'd picked up «Chinese», so we could grind it together. "So you promised to tell us your plan?"

"Of course, but first you need to know more about Coil, particularly his power. He claims it's destiny manipulation, but I can tell that's a lie."

James frowned. "Wait, _destiny manipulation_? How would that even work?"

"Coil strongly implied that his power lets him choose the outcome of any event: what numbers win the lottery, which horse wins the race, and who wins a fight."

I didn't like the sound of that at all. "I'd call bullshit, but given what James's power can do…" Well, I wasn't sure what the limits were on how bullshit powers could be any longer. "Can he really control destiny?"

Lisa took a long slow sip of her drink. I'm certain she did that on purpose just to tease us. "Not to the extent he claims, but he can do a good imitation of it. When he 'hired' me he showed off by controlling eight coin tosses in a row."

James snorted. "That doesn't even take powers. I might need another level or two of «Sleight of Hand» to pull it off with an unaltered coin, but I can think of a few ways to do it without much practice. One or two weighted coins, one heads and one tails, would be simple enough."

I found myself nodding in agreement with James, and even discarding «Sleight of Hand» there were numerous parahuman abilities that could control a coin toss or make it appear so: telekinesis, illusions, super speed, and precognition to name a few.

"I wish it was that simple. My power reveals secrets. I know he manipulated _outcomes_ ; he wasn't just faking it, but he was overselling his power. He had to use a _coin_ , not something like a deck of cards."

The knowledge from math books I'd absorbed earlier was still bubbling inside my head. Included in that had been quite a bit of probability theory, so her point was obvious. "Because a coin toss only has two outcomes."

"Exactly. Unfortunately, his power does more than coin tosses. When Coil sent the Undersiders out to fight Lung, he gave me his guarantee that we would survive. He completely believed we would survive. I'm not buying his power arranging for the two of you to show up before Lung could roast us, but he did something. Could anyone else have known you were going to fight Lung?"

"Nope," replied James. "Not a chance. _We_ didn't know we were going to fight Lung, and no one else knew we were out training, let alone where. Taylor spotted a bunch of ABB thugs, and we followed them. We didn't even plan on fighting. Could any power have arranged all that?"

Lisa shook her head. "It can't be that powerful. Otherwise Coil would already be king of the world. Coil is ultra-paranoid, hiding in a well-fortified base surrounded by mercenaries. He clearly has his limits."

"Maybe it doesn't matter what Coil's power is," I suggested. "Functionally he may as well have precognition. The question is, 'How do we counter it?'"

"Simple, we don't let him pick the battlefield. Coil is invested in Brockton Bay. He has a base, soldiers, moles, informants, and assets galore. He can somehow affect the outcome of one event. So we give him _dozens_. We hit everything he's got at once. Even if he escapes, his power base will be ruined and he won't be able to retaliate effectively."

I weighed that plan. It didn't sound that bad. In fact, it sounded pretty good. If Coil's power was really destiny manipulation, then he wouldn't need the base and soldiers. So stripping all that away from him would hurt. Given my insects' ability to put down the hurt over large areas, I had a pretty good idea which of us three would be responsible for taking down Coil's soldiers in his base. Hopefully I'd have some time to build up my insect control abilities before that time came. "That's a good outline, now how about details?"

Lisa expanded on her plan in bad Chinese while we ate good Thai food. Neither James nor I liked Lisa's plan against Coil, but she knew Coil best. It was hard to argue with her especially when she explained that it would ensure our friends and families were safe for at least a few days. We were able to come up with a fall-back plan. It was less a plan B and more of a way to protect our families if worse came to worse. On the other hand she had some very good ideas that would help bring justice to Winslow. Unfortunately with Coil's willingness to target friends and family, that quest just didn't seem as important any longer.

Other than a happy tummy the only real positive for me from that meeting was learning that my high WIS actually did something meaningful. I learned «Chinese» faster than either James or Lisa. After Lisa announced that with her not-psychic power, James confirmed that he'd read it in the Beginner's Guide to the Gamer. As fun as it was watching Lisa's mind get blown again at the concept of a power coming with its own owner's manual, it was even more amusing to listen to her increasingly strident requests/demands to read the guide.

Naturally, I came in on James's side. "Can you talk about the book later? Lisa, we've already mentioned fighting zombies. I think you should really experience what that is all about first. It's a chance for you to gain valuable skills and level up skills you have. If James decides to lend you the book, you can read it later. We're done planning. You've paid for dinner. Let's go smash some zombies."

Lisa tilted her head at me, like a bird, then nodded. "You're right. The more context I have, the easier it will be to understand the book. So, James, ready to show me to your 'dungeon'. I think Taylor is eager to tie up some victims in silk cords. Where are we going to do this?"

"Um, dungeon…" James seemed a bit taking aback by Tattletale's repartee. "We've been practicing in the Boat Graveyard, but anywhere can do. We just need a hidden spot to enter and exit the dungeon. Since you picked «Capoeira», you'll want more room to really cut loose."

I still wasn't sure whether I liked Lisa's teasing James. It wasn't mean spirited, but she wasn't as funny as she thought she was. It made me feel uneasy in a way that I just couldn't pin down. Regardless, an open field wasn't a good idea. "We need at least part of the zone to be constricted. We can leave every hour or so and reset the dungeon to avoid spawning the boss zombie, but if he does come out to play we'll need a place to lure him into a trap."

"Don't go easy on me, I'm a big girl. Capes don't always get to pick their battlegrounds. Let's stick with what you already know for today."

"Fine with me." James glanced around the streets. There wasn't much traffic and we were largely being ignored even though we were three white kids talking in «Chinese». "So… want to race?"

To tell the truth I was still a little sore and Lisa didn't have the «Sprint» skill yet. "Maybe we should walk and let our food settle?"

Lisa looked me over and shook her head. "If you keep pushing, you're going to hurt yourself someday, and if you keep hiding things, you might not be the only one who gets hurt. We're a team, aren't we?"

"Taylor?" asked James.

"My legs are still a _little_ sore. I can manage. I should get a level up from the zombies. That will wash away all the muscle aches."

"Bullshit," mumbled Lisa.

Was she talking about the fact that James's power could wash away fatigue? Or about me being stubborn?

James was still looking at me concerned. "We can call it a night if you need to rest."

"No. I'm fine." I was not going to be the weak link. Lisa had made it clear that Coil was dangerous. "If it gets bad, I'll call a break, and you can «Massage» my legs, okay?"

James eyed me seriously for a moment before nodding. "Okay. But if you start limping, I'm pulling us out."

"Fine. I get it. I won't push it."

«Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has increased!»

What? I'd been talking to James.

Lisa rolled her eyes, clutched her chest and gave a huge fake sigh. " _Such_ honor, _such_ nobility of spirit. Now, if you two are done making eyes at each other, could you tell me what you mean about 'leveling'?"

"We're not!" I sputtered on top of James's "What?"

"Good to know you're _both_ available," said Lisa with a wink for James, then she laughed. "You two are too easy. Now, leveling up, give me details."

Lisa grilled us for the rest of the walk to the Ship Graveyard. She starting with leveling and then moved on to zombies. She had just started asking about the ghost dungeon when we arrived at our spot.

"Excuse me while I change costumes." I stepped out a ways away from James and Lisa and swapped into my Lady Bug costume.

Lisa pointed in another direction. "And I'll be changing over there. No peeking. Not on the first date."

When I returned I found Lisa wearing the urban camo gear we'd picked up at Crazy Dave's. James had switched into Beetle Knight and had swapped out the _Chalcosoma atlas_ , or Atlas beetle, horns for a pair of serrate antennae, compromised of multiple segments with angled edges giving them a saw-tooth appearance. At the scape, or base, where they attached to James's helmet there was a glowing bulge shaped rather like a beetle abdomen. The light given off by this odd bump was a golden yellow similar to the bioluminescence of Lampyridae. Apparently this was the firefly attachment to his helm. "Hey James, nice headlights."

Lisa cackled at that one. "Isn't that supposed to be his line?"

James stared at Lisa before glancing at my chest. He forced his eyes up and to mine before awkwardly returning his gaze to Lisa. "I don't know what you're talking about?"

I was so glad that I had my facemask on now. It was really hot behind my mask. I decided to just be nonchalant about the whole… incident. "Hey, it's a good idea. I've collected some fireflies, and I've got a couple of cold-light sticks, but we could use the extra light." For someone who kept harping on us about needing to take things seriously, Lisa sure enjoyed her little quips. I was ready to repay the favor. "So, ready to be covered in bugs? We're planning to quit before the boss shows, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. The only way to bring my bugs along is by having them touch one of us."

"Not looking forward to it, but I'll manage." Lisa put one hand on James's shoulder. "Ready as I'm going to get, bug me."

I placed a hand on James and landed bugs on us until we were all covered and then James stuck his hand in the air and opened up the Illusion Barrier. The sky seemed to shatter and crack, but the sky didn't fall. Instead zombies started popping up. I dispersed my bugs sending them flying out across the zone to create a «Combat Map» and sent my skirt-nets flying out to the closest zombies to trip them and immobilize them. James immediately charged a zombie and punched it in the face. I unlimbered my bat and waded in ready to protect Lisa, but it wasn't necessary. Lisa abruptly spun around twice and on the second spin kicked the zombie closest to her in the head. She didn't put it down, but the zombie staggered back and she was able to kick it again.

"Nice kick, Rookie!" shouted James.

"Thanks, but don't call me 'Rookie', Rookie. You didn't mention that they reek like rotten meat."

"They're zombies," replied James. "Did you expect them to smell _nice_?"

I quietly took out another zombie and put several others on hold until we were ready for them. I also had new tricks to work on. "«Swarm Clones,»" I commanded as I gathered bugs into vaguely humanoid shapes to practice drawing zombies off course. Then I invoked "«Swarm of Doom»" trying to mentally define it to apply to not all the bugs in my radius, but only the zombies in our immediate area. I just wanted to soften the zombies up a little while practicing my «Swarm of Doom», not do a zone-wide kill like I'd done… was that only yesterday?

It felt a bit awkward fighting with Lisa at first. After hours of fighting together James and I had fallen into a rhythm where we hardly needed to speak to each other. Sometimes a little bit of combat chatter was needed to handle zombies who popped in an unusual places, or the rare scuba-type zombies, but for the most part when a zombie approached whoever was closest would kill it. Lisa seemed effective with «Capoeira», but she moved all over the place. She engaged zombies that James and I were in better position to handle, and twice she attacked zombies I had on hold with «Entangle». Really, I could understand why it was happening. When I first learned «Aikido», I'd wanted to jump right into a mass of zombies and toss them left, right and center. «Capoeira» seemed equally useful for multiple attackers. I resolved the problem by calling out targets more and using fireflies to designate the targets that I wanted Lisa to attack. That worked until Lisa got winded, but she fixed that problem herself by taking a break from «Capoeira» and practicing her «Gun Mastery» until she got her breath back.

I fed injured zombies to Lisa so she could get her «Apprentice Undead Hunter» title. It was really too easy. In fact I found that I could one-shot zombies with a good critical hit and had to ease up. We were killing them that quickly.

James must have gotten bored as well, because out of the blue he started singing the lyrics to _Thriller_. I joined in and after a little bit Lisa sang with us, too. As I sang along it was like a whole new musical world opened up to me. Despite receiving the «Singing» skill, I'd been so clueless about what singing really meant. I'd been happy merely to get the lyrics right. I'd even been singing softer and louder at times when I should have been changing pitch. Now I could matching James note for note. We were singing in the same range: alto for me and countertenor for James. He was actually a decent singing voice. He was a little fragile in his upper range; his voice probably hadn't settled yet. On the other hand, it was the low notes that gave me trouble, because I was a mezzo-soprano and not a contralto. Still, James and I had some nice harmony going. Lisa, got the lyrics right, but she was an off-key soprano. I really had no room to complain. Prior to the four skill books I'd absorbed on «Singing», I'd been just as bad, if not worse. I felt like I owed James an apology for torturing his ears. Once we were done with _Thriller_ , we kept singing taking turns trying to come up with undead or Halloween themed songs. Unfortunately, we didn't know the lyrics to most of them. The Monster Mash was a graveyard smash and… something, something. At least Lisa got the «Singing» skill out of it.

"It's been almost an hour, Taylor. Want to call your bugs in so I can reset this? Or we could give the Dragon Yakuza Dungeon a try. This is almost too easy, and 7 XP a kill is weak."

I'd noticed that, but with three of us we killed them faster as well. Zombies were safe. I'd been keeping an eye on Tattletale with my bugs. She'd had a few close calls. I'd been ready to step in every time, but I wasn't sure she was ready for a harder dungeon yet. "Hmm, how about we don't stop? We just keep going and kill Legion Zombie again. We've got rope and we know how to kill him. We can try out the Dragon Yakuza dungeon tomorrow in the daylight."

"Sure, sounds good. Hey Lisa, are you okay with fighting the boss? He drops better loot."

"If two rookies could handle him, I'm sure all three of us can manage."

"Good. Then we're leaving the ship. I want to look over our ambush spot before Legion Zombie spawns. Lisa, we'll encounter more zombies this way and from all directions, but nothing you can't handle. I'll still be tagging your targets and using «Entangles» for crowd control. Have you received «Finishing Blow» yet?" As I spoke I used fireflies to direct James to take point and lead us off the container ship.

"Just a minute ago. It's still only level 1. I've got «Power Strike» as well, but didn't manage those other two you mentioned."

"That's fine. You won't really need them…" As we moved off the ship, onto the beach and amongst the twisty maze of the Boat Graveyard, I described our battle plan to Lisa in detail, making sure she understood. I knew that it was probably redundant with her super-intuition power, but Legion Zombie was potentially deadly. He was stupid and could be played like a matador plays a bull, but we had no idea how strong he was. I'd rather not put it to the test. Especially considering that Lisa had no armor at all. By the time I'd finished with my description we'd reached the ambush point. It was still probably the best place in the instance to run the ambush. Two of the larger wrecks made an alleyway down which we could funnel Legion Zombie into a trap.

"When the time comes, James, you'll be here like before." Giant firefly arrow to make sure it was clear. "I'll be over here, same as last time." I used another firefly arrow to light up my hiding place. I noticed the flaw that I hadn't seen last time. My escape route required me to go up a slope. When I'd turned to run during the fight, the sand had slipped under me, and I hadn't been able to run fast enough. If James hadn't disobeyed my orders and jumped in, would I have gotten away? I didn't know, but this time I wasn't taking chances. "I need to set up a rope to help me get up that slope. We'll take care of that after these zombies." My planning got put on hold for a bit. The zombies hadn't stopped spawning, so we had to clear them out. "Lisa. You'll be in one of two places. If we lead him in from the east, I want you hidden here." I marked it with fireflies. "But, if we lead him in from the west, I want you hidden here." Another batch of fireflies to light it up. "Any insights, improvements or questions?"

"I'm good," replied James immediately.

"One of each," Lisa said with her patented self-amused tone.

Really, I was more surprised that was all she had and that she'd let me take the lead as much as she had so far. I directed James toward an approaching zombie and took on another myself. "Go for it."

"You really came up with this battle plan the first time on the fly and improvised the rope from your skirt-nets?"

I shrugged as I «Entangled» a zombie heading towards Lisa. She could kill it in a moment. "Yes, I did."

"The insight is you should give yourself more credit. It's a good plan. Maybe a tactical Thinker could do better, but I can't see how. Especially not with what you had on hand. Your «Multitasking» is subtle, but don't sell it short. Use it right and you might be as good a Thinker as me someday."

Really? I'd been expecting snark. "Thanks. Lisa."

«Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has increased!»

James snickered. "Me brutezan. Me hit things good."

"Your powers are even more bullshit than hers," replied Lisa. "You're in no danger of being overshadowed." She pointed at the zombie I had «Entangled». "Lady Bug, you going to let that thing go so I can kick it in the face?"

"Yeah, sure." I released the zombie and it stumbled toward her.

After our mutual admiration party, we resumed clearing the zone. It wasn't too much longer until the Legion Zombie spawned, just as big and bad as ever, but the plan went off without a hitch. Fortunately it was also just as stupid as the first one. I used my «Swarm Clones» to lead it into the alleyway, entangled it with not one, but three ropes around its legs. We pounded away at its knees with «Finishing Blows» while it was down, then took turns running away from it while the other two beat on it from behind. The outcome was never in doubt. In the end the Legion Zombie faded away with a final scream of rage leaving nothing but my ropes and some loot.

«You have gained a level!»

"Whew! That's a rush! Not quite as much as I expected from what you said, Tayor, but should be _way_ more beat than this."

I was still tingling from the level-up refresh myself. I looked from Lisa to James. Should we hug? James and I had after killing Legion Zombie, but that had been because we were both just thrilled to actually be alive.

Lisa laughed and spread out her arms. "Don't be silly. Group hug time! We beat the giant monster."

I shrugged and joined the group hug. For some reason it felt more awkward with Lisa in the mix, but still we'd won.

«Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has increased!»  
«Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has advanced from 'Peer' to 'Friend'»

"Ooh, loot! Look's like another «Low Grade Recovery Potion», that's a healing potion. And this is... a «Potion of Zombie Strength», gives an extra 20% STR for ten minutes. Blueprint! Hmm, ten ribs and a skin will let me «Craft» a «Bone Rot Bow». Looks like it takes 40 STR to use it, but it gives +5% to accuracy and damage. It also can debuff enemies with [Bone Rot], which drains a little VIT. And we've got some cash again. Does anyone want a bow? I'm not super-excited about picking up an «Archery» skill, but this might be the way to kill the ghosts. Sometimes enemies that are immune to normal weapons can be hurt by weapons with even the slightest enchantment on them."

Did I want a bow? Not really, I'd already spent a good chunk of my stat points raising my INT to get skills. I didn't really want to try to maintain another skill that didn't mesh with my «Blunt Weapon Mastery» and «Aikido.» "I'd have to dump a huge amount points into STR to be able to use it. Lisa? You want to become our ranged weapons expert? Maybe there are special ranged attacks, just like there are hand to hand attacks?"

"I don't have the strength either, but let me check something. «Skills.»" Lisa manipulated the screen. "You know nothing in «Power Strike» or «Finishing Blow» says anything about it being restricted to hand to hand. Let me try it out." She brought out her gun and called out "«Power Strike»" as she fired it. The gun almost jumped out her hand and hit her in the face and the oil drum she'd used as a target had a big hole in it. "It's got some kick to it, but «Power Strike» at least works with ranged attacks."

"Good to know." I'd never considered that «Power Strike» would work with more than hand-to-hand. Would it work for «Finishing Blow», «Grounding Strike» and «Rising Strike». Something to test some other time. I'd leave that to Lisa since I didn't have a ranged weapon.

"Cool, you know gun-fu," added James. "I guess none of us will be using a bow anytime soon. My STR isn't up to it yet. Not need to make one unless someone will be using it. What about the potions?"

"Keep them in your «Inventory,»" advised Lisa. "Safest place for them."

"Okay." James picked up everything and shoved it into his «Inventory». "There's $360 in cash, so only $120 each. It's not as good as last time's loot, but I did get more than enough parts to make «Undead Shirts» and «Pauldrons» for both of you. The shirt is light armor, gives an extra 3 VIT, and you can wear it under your normal costume. The pauldrons only give 1 VIT, but every bit helps."

I ran my eye over James's shirt. «Fashion Design» popped up to tell me he still looked goofy. The shirt was awfully snug on him. Not something I'd want to wear in public, but it would go under my armor. So it didn't matter. Extra protection was always good and +3 VIT couldn't hurt either. However, the pauldrons wouldn't work with my costume at all. "I wouldn't say no the shirt."

Lisa frowned. "Potions, magic items, the more stuff you use the harder it will be to keep your abilities under wraps, but on the other hand turning down an advantage is stupid. I'll take a shirt."

"Want to go again? Or check out the Dragon Yakuza?" asked James hopefully.

I checked my watch. It was twenty past nine. "I'd told my father I'd be home by 10:30. I should head back." Honestly I'd rather face another Legion Zombie.

"And you're still sore," said Lisa proving what an apt name Tattletale was for her. "So am I. James will just have to «Massage» us both before we call it a night. And James, I need you to get _all_ my muscles. Unlike Taylor, I don't want a sore ass in the morning."


	45. Factions 4-6

Factions 4.6 was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Factions 4.6**

An empty Illusion Barrier is a far more discrete setting for absorbing our remaining skill books. I've already got 29 skills, if «Gamer's Mind» and «Gamer's Body» count. Probably a safe bet. So ten slots I can be sure I have left. Where to start? School subjects, I guess. That's four skills in a matter of minutes. I'm not sure about filling up on language skills, but German is going to be useful. And since that's an available class at Winslow, French and Spanish round out the set. Three slots left. What's next? Extra books on skills I already have?

"Here, you wanted this, right?" Lisa is holding a large, glossy paperback out to me, smiling sweetly. _The Ultimate Parkour & Freerunning Book_. Oh my God! She found one! I could ki- "Go ahead, learn it!" Right, right. I grab the book.

«You're obtained the skill book [Acrobatics]»  
«The development of flexibility, grace, and skill in movement.»  
«Exercises developing or displaying physical agility, balance, and coordination. +0.5% AGI»  
«Acrobatics provides bonuses when attempting feats such as rolls, vaults, and balance.»  
«Penalties apply while wearing medium or heavy armor.»  
«Would you like to learn [Acrobatics, Lvl 1]»  
«Yes» «No»

Really? Lisa and Taylor laugh until I go ahead and hit «Yes». Fair enough, it's a little funny. Wait a minute… « _Parkour is just applied Acrobatics._ » Three for three, _everybody_ here is having some fun at my expense. But I can kinda see the humor. And now I see why Lisa grabbed more than one copy of that cheerleading guide.

I'm just deciding to sit on my last two points when Lisa informs me I'm going to learn a few skills she picked. Well, I guess I'll need to get… 4 more INT. But if I'm spending points, let's make it an even 50 and read a couple more of the books I grabbed. A little knowledge of the law could come in real handy soon and I'm not letting the super-villainess be our only legal expert.

«Through repeated calculation, your INT has increased by 1!»

Okay, only 10 points to INT. Pokety, poke, poke, 'ding'. Ding?

«The skill 'Mana Affinity' has been created through INT rising above 50.»

«Mana Affinity (Passive)»  
«Allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.»  
«10% increase in MP recovery rate.»  
«5% increase in total MP amount.»  
«5% increase in magic attack.»  
«5% increase in magic defence»  
«30% increase in MP related skill effects.»

...magic attack? Allows the user to handle mana? Okay, I need to experiment with that, but not in front of the girls. I'm probably wrong and really don't need an audience for grinding «Fool's Act». Maybe hitting 50 in my other stats has similar benefits, check that later too. For now, I've got a stack of books to get through. Ten minutes, give or take, and about a tree and a half of destroyed paper later, my head is spinning a little as I process. I can speak twelve languages total. Sure one is dead, one never really got off the ground, and two are fictional, but what geek could pass up Klingon and Sindarin? I know what purkinje fibers are. I can probably pull off a decent jitterbug now, and I know exactly how full of shit Mom was when she described the lambada as 'standing sex'. If she thinks that's sex, it's a wonder she managed to have five kids. And that's more than enough thought on that subject.

Once everyone has come down a little from absorbing far too much knowledge, far too fast, Lisa suggests stocking my inventory with supplies for any conceivable occasion. We stop by a pay phone first at Taylor's suggestion. Best to make sure our families know we'll be home late. I'm not even sure if anyone is home yet, so I let her go first. It's a little obvious Taylor's dad isn't exactly happy. Apparently 'hero stuff' doesn't cut it as an excuse.

"You know, it wouldn't be a lie to say you're doing something educational with friends." Sometimes it's all about telling the truth the other person will be happiest with.

"And then I would have to explain it later. Exactly how am I supposed to explain that I just completed most of my high school education today?" She's not happy with that idea. "Sorry, my brain is all awhirl. I'll talk to him… eventually."

My turn. Five rings, and no one is home yet. Damn it. "Hey, it's James. I'm hanging out with some friends, we're getting dinner, I'll be home around bedtime." It doesn't really matter that I've left a message. Unless Mom gets a chance to tell me 'no', it doesn't count as telling her. Totally worth it, though. I've learned a few new words for everyday use; I think 'callipyge' is my current favorite and I'm spending the evening with two women who make it easy to remember it. Okay, probably still a little out of it from all the skill books.

Lisa drags us through several stores in rapid succession. We already had to let her cover the difference on books (seriously, over $2,000 worth of books, _each_ ), and now she's buying us cell phones. We each get one Tinker-tech 'inspired' smartphone and two of those borderline indestructible Nokias as burners. No, wait. They're knockoffs. Someone actually made knockoff bricks... Next she buys a pair of bleeding-edge miniaturized digital voice recorders. Apparently they _aren't_ for exposing the bullies, at least not primarily. I shouldn't be so surprised that our insightful little Thinker wants us to be ready to provide accurate data for her talents to process. Finally, Lisa stocks my inventory with all kinds of supplies from an Army Surplus store. Several _heavy_ boxes of ammo, camo BDUs, high-end camping supplies, over-sized metal first aid kits, bottled water for weeks, and MREs for months, which even come in vegetarian now. Who knew?

"Let's get food." Finally, Lisa seems to have finished with her shopping list. "Hmm, it's Monday. There's a good Thai place nearby, and you both like Thai."

Taylor agrees after a moment's pause. "Sure."

"I like Thai?" I've never had Thai. What's in Thai food? "...as long as they don't fry it in grease." Shouldn't hurt to try it.

I've just started into something called 'pad Thai' when Lisa informs us, in «Chinese», that no one nearby can understand that language. It's cool that we can discuss things and train up a valuable skill at the same time.

Taylor doesn't wait for small talk. "So you promised to tell us your plan?"

"Oh course, but first you need to know more about Coil, particularly his power." And she's smirking again. I haven't known her for long, but Lisa really seems to enjoy flipping the script. "He claims it's destiny manipulation, but I can tell that's a lie."

"Wait, _destiny manipulation_?" What is that? Deciding who can pull the sword from the stone? Rewriting the book of someone's life? Flipping people's PC/NPC switches on some cosmic control panel? Dinner dates with Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos? "How would that even work?"

"Coil strongly implied that his power lets him choose the outcome of any event: what numbers win the lottery, which horse wins the race, and who wins a fight."

Taylor responds thoughtfully, "I'd call bullshit, but given what James' powers can do… Can he really control destiny?"

There's an aggravatingly long pause as Lisa slowly sips at her soda. "Not to the extent he claims, but he can do a good imitation of it. When he 'hired' me he showed off my controlling eight coin tosses in a row."

I can't help myself from laughing shortly. "That doesn't even take powers. I might need another level or two of «Sleight of Hand»," thank you, Lisa, for suggesting that one as a way of hiding menu gestures, "but I can think of a few ways to do it without much practice. One or two weighted coins, one heads and one tails, would be simple enough." Just palm-switch them a few times to keep anyone from noticing you always call heads. Powers open a world of other ways to pull it off…

"I wish it was that simple," Lisa laments. "My power reveals secrets. I know he manipulated _outcomes_ ; he wasn't just faking it, but he was overselling his power. He had to use a _coin_ , not something like a deck of cards."

"Because a coin toss only has two outcomes." Taylor vocally realizes.

Lisa shoots her an approving nod. "Exactly. Unfortunately, his power does more than coin tosses. When Coil sent the Undersiders out to fight Lung, he gave me his guarantee that we would survive. He completely believed that we would survive. I'm not buying his power arranging for the two of you to show up before Lung could roast us, but he did something. Could anyone else have known you were going to fight Lung?"

"Nope. Not a chance. _We_ didn't know we were going to fight Lung, and no one else knew we were out training, let alone where." Or that I have powers. "Taylor spotted a bunch of ABB thugs, and we followed them. We didn't even plan on fighting. Could any power have arranged all that?" If there is a power that strong, I really don't want to have to fight it. Although, given Lung dropped a skill book related to _his_ powers…

"It can't be that powerful," Lisa insists. "Otherwise Coil would already be king of the world. Coil is ultra-paranoid, hiding in a well-fortified base surrounded by mercenaries. He clearly has his limits."

"Maybe it doesn't matter what Coil's power is. Functionally he may as well have precognition. The question is, 'How do we counter it?'" Taylor has a point. We've already got enough to work with.

The Thinker was clearly just waiting for this prompt. "Simple, we don't let him pick the battlefield. Coil is invested in Brockton Bay. He has a base, soldiers, moles, informants, and assets galore. He can somehow affect the outcome of one event. So we give him _dozens_. We hit everything he's got at once. Even if he escapes, his power base will be ruined and he won't be able to retaliate effectively."

That's a start, but three people can't exactly attack 'dozens' of targets at once. But Lisa's already developed the beginnings of a rather ambitious plan. Taylor and I both have problems with our roles, but we can't come up with anything better. Our families should be safe. Taylor won't be in as much danger this way. At least the Winslow scheme is a lot simpler, more concrete.

We're just about done eating when Taylor's «Chinese» levels up. That's not fair, she was at an even level 15 after absorbing her skillbook. I was almost ten percent past that! Lisa suggests maybe Taylor's higher WIS score is helping somehow. "Right, the guide did say something about that."

Both girls stare at me for a moment. Lisa opens her mouth first. "Bullshit. Your power came with an instruction manual?"

"No, I had to complete the tutorial first."

"Your power came with a tutorial?! ...your power isn't normal, you know that, right? Mind loaning me the guide some time? The more I know about how your powers work, the more I can help you with them."

"Maybe after I finish it."

"You haven't finished reading it yet?!"

Things continue in that vein for a while before Taylor takes over, suggesting we should introduce Lisa to the wonder that is zombie smashing. Oh course, Lisa can't just not have the last word. "So, James, ready to show me to your 'dungeon'? I think Taylor is eager to tie up some victims in silk cords. Where are we going to do this?"

"Um. dungeon…" Hadn't really considered the innuendo there before. I get the feeling Lisa will be pointing out things like that a lot. "We've been practicing in the Boat Graveyard, but anywhere can do." Fighting zombies on the Boardwalk could be fun. "We just need a hidden spot to enter and exit the dungeon. Since you picked «Capoeira», you'll want more room to really cut loose." The many alleyways here would be bad for that.

"We need at least part of the zone to be constricted. We can leave every hour or so and reset the dungeon to avoid spawning the boss zombie, but if he does come out to play we'll need a place to lure him into a trap." Taylor has a good point there.

"Don't go easy on me, I'm a big girl." Did Lisa just... "Capes don't always get to pick their battlegrounds. Let's stick with what you already know for today."

"Fine with me." Doesn't seem like any of the few people around are paying attention to us. It's as good a time as any to unlock «Sprint» for Lisa. "So… want to race?"

"Maybe we should walk and let our food settle?" I really thought Taylor would be all for a little extra training.

"If you keep pushing, you're going to hurt yourself someday," Lisa scolds her, "and if you keep hiding things, you might not be the only one who gets hurt. We're a team, aren't we?"

What's she talking about? "Taylor?"

"My legs are still a _little_ sore." Taylor is remarkably sheepish about it. "I can manage. I should get a level up from the zombies. That will wash away all the muscle aches."

We need to train up as fast a possible, but letting her hurt herself would just slow us down in the long run. "We can call it a night if you need to rest."

"No, I'm fine. If it gets bad, I'll call a break, and you can «Massage» my legs, okay?"

I _really_ need to make sure she knows I'm straight. But it's not the time, and I'm sure she'll understand. Needs must and all that. "Okay. But if you start limping, I'm pulling us out."

"Fine. I get it. I won't push it."

" _Such_ honor, _such_ nobility of spirit." Okay, that's sarcasm. And there's the disadvantage to having a Thinker around. Guess there's no hiding some things. "Now, if you two are done making eyes at each other, could you tell me what you mean about 'leveling'?"

Wait, "What?" Taylor splutters out a "We're not!" at the same time.

"Good to know you're _both_ available." Lisa winks at Taylor. Lisa. Taylor. Wink? Lisa laughs happily. "You two are too easy. Now leveling up, give me details."

I do my best to answer all of Lisa's questions, with Taylor helping. But it seems like every answer brings two more questions. Leveling leads to stat points, which leads to what each stat does, which leads to all the ways to increase stats, which leads to «Crafting» and blueprints and crafting materials, which leads to what drops in the zombie dungeon, and then on to the ghosts.

"Ghosts are intangible. If we can't kill them, how would I know what they drop?"

Taylor interrupts before the conversation can go any further. "Excuse me while I change costumes." Oh, we're here.

"And I'll be changing over there. No peeking. Not on the first date." First date? I should probably tell Lisa about exchanging equipment. Later.

It's getting dark. A little light is going to help more than a small boost to my stats. "«Beetle Knight, Firefly Mode!»" Huh. Cold out tonight. I swap to «Zombie Slayer» while I'm at it.

Lisa actually beats Taylor back, wearing a set of loose camouflage pants and matching jacket. Kinda expected her to come back as Tattletale, even if she shouldn't be seen around Lady Bug and Beetle Knight.

"Hey James, nice headlights." Oh, Taylor is back. I must look a little dorky right now. The «Firefly Augment» gives me a set of saw-toothed antenna and plants a segmented yellow gem that looks just like a firefly's butt on my forehead. The yellow light from it diffuses nicely, but there's still a focus point that illuminates wherever I'm facing.

"Isn't that supposed to be his line?" What's Lisa laughing about? Wait, headlight _s_. As in… the focus point drops from Lisa's face. Did Taylor really make that joke? The focus point jumps to Lady Bug's chest armor. Am I really looking for… headlights? In front of a Thinker? While there's a bloody searchlight marking whatever I'm looking at? I shoot an apologetic look to Taylor before realizing she can't see it. What do I say to Lisa? I _could_ comment on how neither of them is dressed for highlights, but I've got a personal rule about always being the last one to make that kind of joke and I'm not sure Taylor meant it that way. "I don't know what you're talking about?" Yeah, that was weak.

Taylor doesn't call me on it. "Hey, more light is a good idea. I've collected some fireflies, and I've got a couple of cold-light sticks, but we could use the extra light." A teasing note fills her voice as she turns to Lisa. "So, ready to be covered in bugs? We're planning to quit before the boss shows, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. The only way to bring my bugs along is by having them touch one of us."

"Not looking forward to it, but I'll manage. Ready as I'm going to get, bug me." Both girls lay a hand on opposite shoulder before we're completely swarmed by insects of every kind. I open the barrier as fast a possible. Even if I can work through any emotional response with «Gamer's Mind», I still don't want to spend more time than absolutely necessary as a bug-katamari.

Adding a third person has thrown off our rhythm a bit. When it was just Taylor and I, we mostly just took turns demolishing whichever zombie was closest. Lisa's zipping around like she thinks she won't get XP for any enemy she doesn't hit at least once. All those kicks are really impressive. Even in her current outfit, «Capoeira» shows off her body as much as her skill, not that I can really appreciate the view. This light shining wherever I look makes even a casual glance at either of the girls potentially problematic. Come to think of it, I've only been assuming that we can only learn one martial art each. The reduced penalties for fighting while restrained could be worth the risk.

"Hey, Lisa, when you get a chance, there's a couple skills you'll want to pick up here. Hit one zombie as hard as you can-"

"«Power Strike», got it almost immediately. Thanks. Are there more?" She doesn't even stop. Is it still a drop kick if she catches herself on her hands and spins around upside down, kicking two more zombies away?

"Three we've found. Try for a coup de gras, send one airborne, and knock one out of the air." There really isn't time to talk more than that, even if the zombies are pathetically easy now. I am making it a _little_ harder on myself by looting as me go. After a few minutes Lisa switches to shooting the zombies while catching her breath. Taylor is still going strong, and I could probably do this all day. Not sure that 7 XP a head would be worth it though.

Fighting zombies shouldn't have gotten boring so quickly. About the only interesting thing I've seen in the last hour was a zombie wearing a certain red leather jacket. Actually, that gives me an idea… There are some songs that are just so catchy, nobody can resist. Just a few lines of _Thriller_ and Taylor is singing along. Lisa takes a little longer to join in. To put it nicely, I can tell the instant she gains «Singing». It's a definite improvement. We work our way through a few other 'scary' songs, but there isn't another one we all know particularly well. Taylor even missed a few lines of _Monster Mash_. I'm just considering pushing things a little with _Zombie Prostitute_ when I realize just how many songs we've gone through.

"It's been almost an hour, Taylor. Want to call your bugs in so I can reset this?" No need to waste time waiting for the bugs to pop out on their own. "Or we could give the Dragon Yakuza dungeon a try. This is almost too easy, and 7 XP a kill is weak."

"Hmm, how about we don't stop? We just keep going and kill Legion Zombie again. We've got rope and we know how to kill him. We can try out the Dragon Yakuza dungeon tomorrow in the daylight." I guess Taylor is just as ready for a real fight.

"Sure, sounds good." Best make sure everyone is on board. "Hey Lisa, are you okay with fighting the boss? He drops better loot." Considering how many questions she had about drops...

"If two rookies could handle him, I'm sure all three of us can manage."

Taylor takes charge by reflex, directing us to the same ambush point we used last night. She easily adds Lisa to the plan, in a somewhat more fluid role. Basically, her point of attack depends on which side the Legion Zombie spawns from. When Taylor asks for questions or comments, there's nothing I can think of, but Lisa takes the opportunity to compliment Taylor.

"It's a good plan. Maybe a tactical Thinker could do better, but I can't see how. Especially not with what you had on hand. Your «Multitasking» is subtle, but don't sell it short. Use it right and you might be as good a Thinker as me someday." Okay, so it's a kind of a mixed compliment.

"Thanks, Lisa." Apparently that's good enough for Taylor.

Time to represent for the Brute side of things. "Me brutezan. Me hit things good." I consider tossing in a warbling yell or a couple 'zug's, but nah.

"Your powers are even more bullshit than hers. You're in no danger of being overshadowed."

And that's enough back-patting. We must have killed more zombies than I thought, because we've barely started hunting again before the Legion Zombie spawns. Still huge, still scary, but now it's only nine levels higher than me, and I'm the lowest level here. With the addition of a third teammate, two of us can attack it while the third runs bait. While the battle is still a complete rush, there's never any doubt involved. I'm grinding «Dodge» closer to its snapping teeth than is strictly sane when it lets out an unearthly howl and melts away.

"Whew! That's a rush! Not quite as much as I expect from what you said, Taylor, but I should be _way_ more beat than this." Sounds like Lisa got her first level up. I'd be disappointed if I hadn't already leveled once today. Let's see, last time we hugged before looting, but that was kind of a special situation and now there's two girls here. "Don't be silly. Group hug time! We beat the giant monster."

Never one to turn down an invitation from a pretty girl (let alone two), I enjoy the slightly awkward three-way hug. While it's really nice, I make sure to back out the second Lisa's grip loosens.

«Relationship with Lisa Wilbourn has increased!»

"Ooh, loot!" Let's see what we've got here. Well, that bottle is familiar. "Looks like another «Low Grade Recovery Potion», that's a healing potion." I realize the explanation is largely redundant a moment too late. "And this is…" Huh, a brownish grey potion in a squarish bottle. «Observe». "A «Potion of Zombie Strength», gives an extra 20% STR for ten minutes." Save that one for an emergency. Ooh! "Blueprint! Hmm, ten ribs and a skin will let me «Craft» a «Bone Rot Bow». Looks like it takes 40 STR to use it," honestly seems a little low for a 'horn bow', "but it gives +5% to accuracy and damage. It can also debuff enemies with [Bone Rot], which drains a little VIT." On any given hit there's a 15% chance of the debuff applying. Then for 30 seconds the target has 10% less VIT. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary. "And we've got some cash again. Does anyone want a bow? I'm not super-excited about picking up an «Archery» skill, but this might be the way to kill the ghosts. Sometimes enemies that are immune to normal weapons can be hurt by weapons with even the slightest enchantment on them."

Even with her face hidden, it's obvious Taylor is mulling it over. "I'd have to dump a huge amount of points into STR to be able to use it. Lisa? You want to become our ranged weapons expert? Maybe there are special ranged attacks, just like there are hand to hand attacks?"

"I don't have the strength either, but let me check something. «Skills». You know know nothing in «Power Strike» or «Finishing Blow» says anything about it being restricted to hand to hand. Let me try it out." Lisa's test puts a much larger hole than expected in a nearby oil drum. "It's got some kick to it, but «Power Strike» at least works with ranged attacks."

It's useful information, but still not enough for any of us to want the bow. The potions both go in my inventory for now and there's $120 for each of us. While I'm at it, how many craftables dropped? Looks like I've got another 112 «Soul Shards», 78 «Teeth of the Dead», 53 «Ribs of the Dead», and 32 «Skins of the Dead». That's more than enough to make «Undead Shirts» and «Pauldrons» for Taylor and Lisa. Neither seems interested in the pauldrons, but both accept the offer of a shirt. Lisa _does_ make sure to warn me that the more of this stuff I display, the harder it'll be to keep the full scope of my powers secret.

It's not as impressive as the loot from last time, but it's still good. "Want to go again? Or check out the Dragon Yakuza?" Maybe we can find a blueprint that uses «Dragon Scales» or a fire-breathing skill.

"I told my father I'd be home by 10:30. I should head back." Taylor seems reluctant about calling it a night.

"And you're still sore. So am I," Lisa pipes up. "James will just have to «Massage» us both before we call it a night." At least it's safe to assume the Thinker knows that I'm straight. Not sure if that makes it more or less awkward that she's still asking for this. "And James, I need you to get _all_ my muscles. Unlike Taylor, I don't want a sore ass in the morning."

...um… did she just… _ask_ me to… She winks at me as she shucks her coat and rolls it into a pillow. Okay. Don't make a whole thing about it. I start at her ankles and work my way up. I don't want to seem overeager, and this gives her plenty of time to change her mind. Kinda expect it, given how she tenses up the moment I touch her. Calves. Knees. Thighs.

"James." Da- thank G- I have very mixed feelings here. "Fighting doesn't only affect leg muscles. Make sure to get my back and arms next." I resume my upward progress.

With seven levels in «Massage» now (Lisa's stack of books she insisted I learn included a few on the subject), the full process takes just under 5 minutes. The middle thirty seconds are significantly more… interesting. I swear she's making noises just to make me uncomfortable.

Lisa rolls over and pats the 'pillow'. Taylor fills the vacated spot silently. Should I…? If I just start at the ankles again, would she even speak up? I mean, this is the girl who barely complained with all the Trio put her through. "Uh, Taylor? Um…"

"Lisa's right. Those muscles get sore too."

"Thank you… for answering the question. The question I was having trouble wording. The thanks is for answering that question." Shoot me now. Thankfully, the massage itself goes mostly smoothly. I have to work around her armor a little, but it's doable. I do have to go over her legs a second time after she tenses up when I… move past them.

«Massage's level increased by 1!»

Lisa keeps a conversation running throughout. How soon can we meet up tomorrow? Since we don't have school we actually have a couple extra hours. What do we want to do with them? She even tells us a few personal tidbits about the Undersiders, like how much Regent loves white furniture and Bitch can't stand new people. "Hey James, if you two race home, be sure to give Taylor another massage."

How many times does she think Taylor will tolerate me doing that in one day? "Uh, we don't have to run. Plenty of time to walk. It's a nice night out?" Actually, I think it might rain.

"No, we should. I mean, we both need to practice «Sprint», and the massage isn't terrible. Actually, it feels good. Arrgh, that's not what I mean." Taylor is babbling until she stops abruptly and rallies. "James, we're partners and teammates. We fought the boss zombie and Lung, we can be adults about this. A massage is just a massage. Let's ignore the whole boy/girl thing? 'Kay?"

Boy/girl thing? Does that mean? "Do you…" actually know I'm straight? I'm… not going to ask that. Would not end well. I'll figure it out on my own. "Want to race?"

"Hey! Don't leave me in here."

"Oh, right. Give me your hand. «ID Escape». For the record, when we left bugs behind, they popped out on their own after a few minutes."

A fresh dungeon later, Taylor and I are charging across the city. Seriously, an extra 30, no 35% running speed is _huge_. It's a good thing I'm wearing my helmet. A few more levels and I'll need the lenses to keep my contacts from drying out. Since it's already dark out, we aren't half as careful about privacy going from one barrier to the next. Don't see anyone anyway.

Taylor puts on a good show, but it's clear that she's wearing down. By the time we reach her neighborhood she's barely jogging, each foot step slapping wearily. I am _so_ glad my (Sustained) skills run on MP. No need for a massage. Huh. Guess that could be seen as a downside..

It's a little odd giving three massages to the same girl in one day, but Taylor clearly can't go any further. She completely collapses across her front porch, huffing and puffing. Thankfully face down. I almost ask if she's okay with me handling it, but stop myself. I _really_ don't think she'd appreciate the stupid question. I have to go over her legs twice, again, but altering the order of operation without discussing it first seems like a bad idea. Especially since the girl in question controls bees.

"Thanks. Let's go to the side yard. Some of my neighbors can see right over the back fence." Looks like the «Massage» worked, she's mostly walking steady again.

"See you at nine?"

"Eight. We can meet up here before meeting Lisa in the Boat Graveyard at nine."

"Right, right. «ID Escape»." I wait for Taylor to step back before opening a new barrier. It's like she just disappears along with the sound of crickets.

I get in one last «Sprint» on the way home, before running my «Power Down» macro to change back to street clothes. It's almost eleven when I exit the barrier behind my house. Damn it, if I didn't leave a message, I could have just snuck in. Then again, I don't really have anything new to tell Andy if he notices this time, so I guess it's face the music time.

I haven't even fully opened the door when Mom starts yelling at me, "Where have you been?" She must have been waiting in the living room. I've got to oil the screen door or something. "We were worried sick about you!" While she doesn't look healthy, it's anger coloring her otherwise unremarkable face, not worry. "What does 'hanging out with friends on the Boardwalk' even mean, I thought you didn't have any friends?" You're middle-aged, kinda overweight, and only ever talk to your coworkers. Don't walk to me about friends. "How did you get money to spend on the Boardwalk, did you steal it from my purse? Close the door already, you're embarrassing me." Embarrassing is the number of people who think my mom is purposely dyeing a white stripe in her hair because she likes Rogue. She's not that cool, and it's natural.

Wow. I mean, I expected it, but geeze. "I was at the Boardwalk, like I said." And fighting zombies with two capes. Two _other_ capes. "Spending time with some friends from school." Well, one friend from school and a supervillainess. "I _have_ a few friends," ...ouch. "I didn't buy anything," that you need to know about. "No, I didn't." Andy swipes at least $20 a week. Just try telling her that. Never ends well. "You're the one yelling for the neighbors to hear."

"Don't be rude. I've half a mind to ground you until graduation! If you tell me the truth, it'll only be a week. Did you steal money from my purse?"

"No, I didn't."

For once, she takes me at my word. "Who were you hanging out with?"

"My friend Taylor and her friend Lisa."

"Okay, two weeks. After school, you come right to my office and do your homework."

The rest of the conversation goes about the same. As far as she's concerned, me spending time with friends is a stretch. Two friends, both girls? Not a chance in hell. And since I'm lying about that, I must have stolen the money from her purse. Can't believe Andy actually took $100. I can't believe Mom was stupid enough to have that much in her purse. ...actually, I can. Dad occasionally tosses in a weary, half-assed 'calm down', but most just ducks and covers. Mostly metaphorically, but it's disappointing to see a man who's over 6'2" (and and a bit heavy) cower from any confrontation. Andy snickers through the first fifteen minutes before wandering off to the bedroom.

"Dude, she really tore into you."And of course he's still up. "You're lucky you looked so pathetic out there, I _almost_ told them about last night."

"Why?" Seriously, why?

"Everything you told me was up on PHO before you even made it home. I don't care what you were actually doing, but don't screw with me." Holy crap! «Gamer's Mind» is good enough to keep me from putting my 28 STR fist through his aggravating face.

I ignore Andy and just go to bed, pretending to sleep until around one. I've got to see what people are saying on PHO.


	46. Role Playing 5-2

**Role Playing 5.2**

After Lisa called out the fact that my ass was still sore and had James give her a _full_ massage, I couldn't do anything less. I wasn't going to be the weak link. So when she got up and patted the wadded up camo jacket that she'd used as a pillow, I changed places with her.

"Uh, Taylor? Um…" James clearly wanted an engraved invitation.

"Lisa's right. Those muscles get sore too." Unlike Lisa I could at least be professional about this. I also wasn't going to make those happy noises like Lisa had. Thankfully she'd stopped after I'd sent a mosquito to buzz in her ear.

"Thank you… for answering the question. The question I was having trouble wording. The thanks is for answering that question."

I found James's babble oddly reassuring. While he was a superhero now, he was still the goofball I grew up with inside. Yes, his hands were on my legs, but he found this just as awkward as me. I focused on my bugs and Lisa as she shared some insights on the Undersiders. Mostly trivia, but it helped paint a picture of them as people instead of villains. I still wasn't sure how much I bought the shades of gray argument, but Lisa had at least convinced me that the Undersiders were certainly a lesser evil. Even with Lisa to focus upon, part of me enjoyed the massage. James had really improved his technique. When the massaged ended, I was both disappointed and relieved.

"Hey James, if you two race home, be sure to give Taylor another massage."

Did she want another mosquito in her ear?

"Uh, we don't have to run. Plenty of time to walk. It's a nice night out?"

I offered James a weak smile, not that he could see it through my mask. I needed to use words. "No, we should. I mean, we both need to practice «Sprint», and the massage isn't terrible. Actually it's rather pleasant. Argh, that's not what I mean." Fuck, what do I mean? What kind of team leader am I? I bet Alexandria never gets tongue tied like this. Especially about getting a massage. Right. I can do this. "James, we're partners and teammates. We fought the boss zombie and Lung, we can be adult about this. A massage is just a massage. Let's try to just ignore the whole boy/girl thing? 'Kay?"

"Do you…" James trailed off. Apparently with increased WIS came the ability not to say the first thing that popped into his head. "Want to race?"

"Hey! Don't leave me in here." Lisa interjected before I could reply.

After we took our leave from Lisa we raced back to my house. Other than it being night out, it went pretty much like our «Sprint» across town earlier. I started off a little bit faster, but couldn't keep up. By the time we got to my house, I couldn't catch my breath. I didn't even try to stretch. I just plopped down on my front porch and let James massage my pain away. All the aches in my body melted away as he rubbed my sore muscles. Okay, maybe I was a little too hard on Lisa. I could get used to this. All too soon it was over. I had James drop us back into reality in my side yard where no one could see. He agreed to come over to my house at eight and then he left.

It was only after he left that I realized that I was still in costume. I felt exposed changing in my side yard, but I knew from my «Combat Map» that I was alone. I also took a little bit to wake up the spiders in my basement and set up all my standard skills to practice with my bugs. It was time to face my father. I was not looking forward to this. He wasn't going to be happy.

I pushed my doubts down deep inside and strove for nonchalance as I entered my house. "Hi Dad, I'm home."

"Hello Taylor. I see you managed to make it home when you said you would _this_ time." Dad's words were like winter wind, cold and biting. "Sit down. We're going to establish some rules, which you will be following."

"Dad, let me explain. I was-"

"No. I'm going talk and you're going to listen this time. This ends today. No more of you running off. I didn't know where you were or what you were doing. I've been sitting here listening to the news for cape fights. Last time you were out late you fought Lung! You can't keep doing this. 'Hero stuff' is not an acceptable answer. Neither is hanging up on me. I'm not going to sit here at home night after night wondering if you're going to come home alive."

"But I wasn't-"

"No. You'll get you chance. Rule one is I'm informed. I know where you are going and what you are doing. We will get you a cellphone and you will call me frequently with updates. Specifics. None of this vague 'hero stuff' bullshit. This is not negotiable. Do you understand rule one?"

Oh, I understood. I was in my second kangaroo court of the day, Judge Danny presiding. I was guilty of being a cape and should feel 'lucky' that I was getting probation with a very short leash. While this was better than being grounded, it was a rule I couldn't honor. I couldn't give my father specifics about Coil. It was also a stupid rule. Cell phones weren't that hard to hack. Lisa made it clear that even burner phones weren't secure. If I went along with this rule, I'd be putting both of us in more danger.

"Taylor. Do you understand rule one?"

"I _understand_." Oh, I could hear the sulk in my voice, but I didn't give a damn.

"Now that we're clear on rule one, do you remember what I told you before I left for work?"

Really? "Which thing you told me? That I was wrong for trying to be a hero? That you wanted to meet Beetle Knight?" He'd _told_ me several things this morning.

"I told you that you'd better be here when I got home."

"I…" shit. "I guess I forgot about that. Sorry." And I knew I didn't sound sorry, because I wasn't, not really. Learning about Coil and buying all those skill books had been _important_. I couldn't even regret the zombie dungeon. We needed a shakedown fight to test our new skills, and it made a difference for Lisa. After fighting zombies together and especially taking down the boss zombie, had brought us closer as a team. We needed that.

My dad gestured toward the other end of the couch. "Sit down. You said you could explain. Please, explain what was so important that you just couldn't come home."

I felt more like pacing than sitting. I had too much energy, but fine. I sat. Now I had to explain. "Beetle Knight and I were training." What else could I tell him? Lisa had warned me not to mention Coil. He was in danger because of me, but if he said anything about Coil, then he'd be in a lot more danger. I couldn't even mention Lisa. I could mention the bullies at Winslow, but now really didn't feel like a good time to bring up that I'd gotten suspended for fighting.

My father didn't look at all impressed. "That's it? You were training? Why couldn't you say that instead of 'hero stuff'?"

"You put me on the spot, okay?" It was hard just sitting. I wanted to be moving or at least tapping my foot. I could feel my bugs growing more agitated. They were all under my control, but the ones that weren't busy weaving cloth were heading this way and ready to fight. I took direct control and pushed them away. I wasn't going to fight my father. I really only had one card to play. "I needed to see him today because… I probably won't be seeing him as much in the future. I'm going to be a hero. You need to accept that, because I'm a cape and a pretty powerful one. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines or just play dress-up with Parian."

My father didn't look happy about that, but at least he seemed to be listening. "Go on. Why does wanting to be a hero mean you won't see as much of Beetle Knight? I thought your plan was to do a lot more training with him."

"Sometimes still, but…" Right, time to spin this. "You were right. If I'm going to be a hero, then I probably need to join the Wards. Beetle Knight may or may not join with me. If he joins with, then we'll still be teammates, and we'll see each other sometimes, but it won't be the same." That was all true more or less, emphasis on less.

My father frowned. "I don't think that is exactly what I meant. However, since you are determined to be a hero, it is a step in the right direction. Why wouldn't Beetle Knight be joining you?"

"He's not going to be a villain if that's what you mean. He has issues with authority." Another half-truth. He had issues with Armsmaster, but he wasn't the biggest danger. "If he doesn't join, then we'll still meet up sometimes to train and patrol and stuff." Stuff like Illusion Barriers and taking down Coil.

My father frowned. "Taylor, you didn't say, but I thought you were more than just partners. I thought you were friends."

I was surprised he'd seen that. After all, he'd thought Emma was still my friend right up until the day she'd helped trap me in the locker. Apparently he wasn't totally clueless. "We are friends." Which still amazed me. I had a friend again. Two of them according to the «Relationships» tab.

My father ran a hand through his thinning hair. "Kiddo, friends aren't something that grow on trees. If Beetle Knight has reservations, then maybe you should slow down, think things through. There is no need to rush this decision. The Wards will still be there next week. Don't throw away a friend."

Shit. That hurt. I wasn't like Emma. This wasn't my choice. I didn't like Lisa's plan, but Coil was a psychotic, controlling asshat, and joining the Wards wasn't really safe for James. Lisa was trying to plot a narrow course between Scylla and Charybdis to keep all of us, including my father, safe and free. We had to use the Protectorate, but couldn't trust them with the truth. They were infiltrated by Coil and if they knew the full extent of James's powers, he would be locked in a very nice gilded cage for the rest of his life.

And I couldn't tell Dad any of that. "I'm not throwing away a friend. It's Beetle Knights choice. He can still join the Wards." And as sour to my stomach as that made me feel that was the truth. Lisa had given him two options. One was just much safer for him.

My father crossed his arms, obviously unconvinced. "So why not give him time to think?"

And it all came down to Coil being an asshat, but if I told my father, he'd tell the PRT to protect me from the big bad supervillain, and then Coil would find out, and everything would go to shit. I pushed my fears out into my swarm and trotted out one of Mom's pet saying. Something she'd say about any unpleasant job that needed doing. "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."

My father softened as that. "I miss her too, kiddo, but that's not what she meant when she used it. Joining the Wards isn't something you can just take back. You shouldn't rush into life altering decisions."

I shrugged. "It didn't start out that way. I got an email from Miss Militia today. She invited me to meet the Wards. Beetle Knight may or may not come with me. I'm still not entirely sure about joining the Wards, but if the meeting goes well then I'll probably join."

"I see, but even so… can't it wait?"

"Dad, It's _Miss Militia_. She wants to meet with _me_ , and personally introduce me to the Wards. Do you really think I should turn that down?"

"Well… I guess not." My father looked about as happy as being told he had a cavity that needed filling, but given where I'd started, this was almost victory.

«Your skill in [Bluff] has increased by 1.»

I was really starting to hate being told that I was getting better at lying to my father. "Dad, I'll be safer in the Wards." More importantly my father would be safer at least in the short term. Coil wouldn't move after a Ward's family without a pressing reason. At least that's what Lisa said.

"I can't say that I'm happy, but maybe this is for the best." He sighed. "When is this meeting? I am your father. I should be there."

"I'll meet with Miss Militia and the Wards tomorrow afternoon." At least I hoped that I would be. I'd used my brand new smart phone to log onto PHO and send a reply to Miss Militia at dinner. I hadn't checked a reply yet, but Lisa claimed the PRT would bend over backward to recruit me. "I can't bring you along. It would sorta compromise my secret identity." Plus I didn't want the PRT to know I was ready to sign. I'd lose leverage that way.

"Then come home afterward and we'll talk. If they give you any papers, bring them home and I'll look them over."

"I can do that," I lied. While Dad was being reasonable, his way would cost me a day. With Coil I didn't have time to spare. So I'd just 'change my mind' tomorrow and call him from the PRT building. Hmm, since he just brought up the matter of contracts. "Dad, there is something else I want to do first, too. I could use your help. It's about Parian. We've just been working with verbal agreements. I'm pretty sure that the PRT won't let me honor those agreement. So, I want to get a written contract in place with Parian first. That way the PRT won't have a choice." Technically they would have a choice. They could tell me no, but Lisa thought they'd bend their terms for me.

My dad beamed at this announcement. "Taylor, that's a great idea! A good contract would protect both your interests. Do you want me to meet with you and Parian?"

"No, that would also compromise my identity. I'll meet with her. I want you to review the contract before I sign it."

He frowned. "If that's how you want to go, but it might take several rounds of negotiations that way. Do you know what terms and conditions you want?"

"Straight up 50/50 partnership. I'm supplying a very unique material, spider silk cloth. It is lighter and has a tensile strength greater than Kevlar. Parian will create the costumes and has the contacts. It's a fair deal."

"You should also make some volume commitments. Otherwise the PRT might still shut you down. An exclusive agreement with Parian doesn't mean you have to sell her anything. It only means that you can't sell to anyone else."

Lisa had mentioned volume commitments as well, but I smiled and played dumb. "Thanks. I'll be sure to put that in there." My father was no doubt hoping that the PRT wouldn't like that and I'd be well on my way to being a rogue. That was fine.

"So when do you meet with Parian?"

"Tomorrow morning." Knock on wood. I'd sent that PM over dinner as well. Hopefully she was available.

"Don't you have school tomorrow?" asked my father suspiciously.

"Yeah, well about school…"

Dad turned out to be surprisingly cool about my being suspended from Winslow. He was angry at the school and my bullies, but not angry at me. He was ready to march into Winslow and give Blackwell a piece of his mind. However, as I explained 'my' plan (actually Lisa's), he calmed down. He loved the plan, probably because he had a starring role in it. By the time I'd fully explained, he was smiling.

He glanced at the clock. "It's getting late. I think we made progress, but we still have to deal with your punishment."

"Punishment? But rule one? Didn't we cover this already?"

"Rule one isn't punishment. Rule one is common courtesy from a teenager to her father. You lied for weeks, Taylor, and blew me off again this evening. There needs to be a punishment. You're going to write me an essay."

I immediately relaxed. An essay was no biggie. Mom used to make me write one-page essays when I misbehaved. She believed punishment should be productive and not merely punitive. Usually I had to explain my actions and why what I'd done was ethically or morally wrong. "Okay. On what topic?"

"I was going to make it on morality of teenaged capes being allowed to risk their lives fighting…" He fixed me with a gaze that was more weary than angry. "However, given your declaration about possibly joining the wards, I want a persuasive paper on that topic. Three pages minimum. I want you to address the pros and cons. Make sure you mention the impact on your business with Parian and your friendship with Beetle Knight. You want to join the Wards? Convince me."

«New Quest Alert: Complete [Writing] Assignment»  
«Write a paper convincing your father to allow you to join the Wards.»  
«Reward: 250 XP, Increased Reputation with Danny Hebert, [Writing] increase, Permission to join the Wards.»  
«Failure: Decreased Reputation with Danny Hebert, Denied permission to join the Wards.»  
«Accept?»  
«Yes» «No»

"Fine. «Yes.» I'll write the paper." And based on both our family tradition and the wording of the quest, my father wouldn't let me join the Wards until the damn paper was done.

After telling my father good night, I took a quick shower. Either because of the level-up or the «Massage» I wasn't really tired. That was a good thing because I had a paper to write. Before I got started, I wanted to go through my skills and see what others I could practice with my bugs. I'd already added «Mathematics» to the list of skills I constantly practiced by working through the math problems in the books I'd memorized. I pulled up my skills and tackled them alphabetically.

«Acrobatics» – no. «Aikido» – no. «Alchemy» – the practical side of chemistry. I had a list of experiments, but nothing I could do with my bugs. «Anatomy» – no. «Bluff» – no. «Blunt Weapons Mastery» – no. «Chemistry» – Hmm, maybe. In the books I'd memorized I had quite a few «Chemistry» problems. Why couldn't I work through them like I was the math problems? I tasked some bugs and started working chemistry problems.

«Chinese» – Doh! I couldn't speak it through my bugs, but I could certainly write things out. Chinese characters were in some ways easier to write with using bugs than the English alphabet. I turned on the radio so I'd have something to translate and started «Singing» along while using a group of bugs to translate words.

«Clairsentience Blocking» and «Combat Mapping» were already in my constant practice skills and that brought me to «Computer Programming». I had some exercises from those books as well, but they were intended to be done on a computer. Still, I could try my hand at just writing out programs using bugs to spell out the letters. It took more bugs, but was worth the effort.

«Cooking» – no. «Cryptography» – already working it. «Dancing» – no. «Detect Enemies» – no. «Dodge» – no. «Entangle» – no. Wait. Maybe. Would target practice on various objects work? It had earned me «Knife Throwing». I flew some bugs up from the basement with silk cords and set them to work entangling dangerously hostile furniture downstairs. Couldn't hurt to try.

«Entomology» – Why was it at 2.5%? Something I'd done had gained some experience, but I had no clue as to what I'd done. Pass. «Fashion Design» – already weaving away. «Finishing Blow» – no. «First Aid» – no. «Gambling» – Probably needed me to actually bet money. Judging by the way combat experience beat the hell out of any other experience, the riskier the better. So, pass.

«History» – no. «Hypnosis» – there were self-hypnosis techniques, but I couldn't use them and write the damn paper. «Intimidate» – no. «Knife Mastery» – no. «Knife Throwing» – no. «Light Armor Mastery» – no. «Mathematics» – currently working my way through binomial equations. «Meditation» – not and write a paper. «Mental Control Area» – working it. «Physical Resistance» – no. «Power Strike» – no. «Rising Strike» – no. «Sense Processing» – pushing it with tastes and smells. «Singing» – currently singing along with the radio to an Earth-aleph crossover, _Raise Your Glass_ , by P!nk. Not quite my anthem, but I could relate to parts of it.

«Sleight of Hand» – no. «Speed Reading» – not while writing an essay. «Stealth» – no. «Swarm Clone» – I might as well try walking some humanoid shapes around. I set that up in the empty house one block over and two houses up from mine. Couldn't hurt to try.

«Swarm of Doom» – no. «Tactics» – no. «Trapping» – I'd had high hopes for being able to practice this with my bugs, but after learning the skill it wasn't as useful as I thought. Most traps required a source of potential energy to tap into: a bent sapling, a propped up weight, an explosive device, or something similar. However, bugs weren't strong enough to bend saplings or lift weights. While that ruled out most large traps, I could still make simple snare of the sort that were used for trapping rabbits. A rabbit snare was basically a noose tied to an anchor. You placed it on small game trails and hopefully a bunny would be dumb enough to poke its head right through it. While a rabbit snare wouldn't kill larger game, it could still trap a foot if an animal was unlucky. I'd considered using them against zombies, but given the way that Lisa had been dancing around, I thought I'd more likely trap her than a zombie. I decided to set a team of bugs to making and setting rabbit snares, while a second team took them apart. Maybe it would be enough to gain experience.

And my last skill was «Writing». That meant it was time to get started on that essay. I wasn't happy to be writing it, but I counted myself lucky that I was only being asked to write a persuasive paper about joining the Wards. A paper trying to justify the morality of teenagers fighting would have been a lot tougher. In an ideal world teenaged capes wouldn't have to risk their lives, but Brockton Bay was far from an ideal world.

Four hours, three and a half pages, and three «Writing» skill checks later I finally had an essay written that I thought would pass my father's standards. I think it would have even have passed my mother's standards. Basically I'd made the case that the Wards were safer than the alternatives. The hardest part was addressing the impact on my friendship with Beetle Knight, but I'd argued that if we were really friends we could survive some separation. I hoped that would be true, but people change and friendships don't last forever. Lisa was a flirt, but maybe it wasn't all teasing. If James had Lisa as a girlfriend, would he care about his friendship with me?

While I could easily wallow in that, I chose instead to review what four hours of constant practice did for me. Answer – a lot. «Chemistry», «Chinese», «Clairsentience Blocking», «Combat Mapping», «Computer Programming», «Cryptography», «Entangle», «Fashion Design», «Lingering Command», «Mental Control Area», «Sense Processing», «Singing», and «Trapping» all leveled up. I'd also managed to level «Mathematics» and «Speed Reading» twice. However, I'd made absolutely no progress with my «Swarm Clones». Given all the other skill-ups, I couldn't feel that upset over it.

Even though it was almost 3 AM, I didn't really feel tired. While it was tempting to stay up and grind more skills, I needed to be alert and skipping sleep two nights running would probably bite me in the ass. So I turned off the light and crawled into bed. In the darkness of my room if found myself worrying about James. The Wards option wasn't really safe for him. Not that the other option was really safe, plus he'd be spending lots of time with Lisa. Not to mention what Coil might do to our families. Despite my fears and insecurities it wasn't long before I fell asleep.

My father woke me up by knocking on my door. "Taylor, rise and shine. I made breakfast. I'd like to talk to you before I have to leave for work."

My first thought upon shaking the sleep from my head was disappointment that my father had made breakfast because I wouldn't be able to work on my «Cooking» skill. As I got dressed the slow way without «Inventory», I had to wonder if I was getting addicted to James's power. I'd heard of videogame addiction, and always thought it was a joke, but I was behaving like an addict. I'd only gotten four hours of sleep last night and had considered skipping sleep altogether two nights running so I could grind my skills. That wasn't normal behavior. Nor was the way I'd taken control of all the bugs around me and immediately started working on a baker's dozen of skills. I had a reason to push hard now – Coil, but I hadn't been thinking about him when I'd started grinding skills. Maybe it was a little out of hand, but I _liked_ doing all those different things at once. My «Multitasking» ability was like an overeager puppy begging to be played with.

Powers wanted to be used. That was backed up by governmental research. During my research for my persuasive paper I'd found a FAQ sheet for parents of young capes. It was written by the PRT and pushed joining the Wards, but one of the questions had asked why capes couldn't just refrain from using their powers. The short answer was that every parahuman felt the need to use their powers. The longer answer included links to case studies where volunteer capes refrained from using their powers for a period of time. As the experiment progressed the parahumans involved had grown increasingly irritable. The experiment was cut short because after only three weeks some of the subjects started showing violent tendencies. So exercising my powers was in some way mentally healthy, as long as I didn't take it to extremes. Besides, with the threat of Coil training was necessary.

My father greeted me as soon as I entered the kitchen. "Morning, nothing fancy just bacon and eggs."

"Thanks for cooking, and here, this is for you." I handed him the essay.

My father took it with obvious surprise on his face. "That was fast, did you stay up all night?"

"Only a couple of hours." Where was the quest completion? I'd done the assignment. I started eating my eggs and bacon which were by now a bit on the cold side, but still breakfast.

My father leaned against the refrigerator. "I know you're going to see Parian today and later Miss Militia, right."

I nodded my agreement. Both had confirmed.

"Can I assume Beetle Knight will be going with you?"

"Yes to Parian. I'll see about the Wards." I took a sip of juice and looked at the paper in his hand. "Will you look that over?" The lack of quest completion bothered me.

"Sure, sure, at work. So just to remind you. Rule 1 – I expect to be informed where you are and what you are doing. Call me before and after you go to meet Parian and the Wards. And about Beetle Knight, he's a boy. That means I don't want him alone in this house with you unsupervised."

"Of course not," I replied as coolly as I could manage. Hopefully James wouldn't make it obvious that I was lying by showing up early. Not that my 'virtue' was in any danger. It had been clear ever since Lisa showed up in spandex that James liked curvier girls.

«Your skill in [Bluff] has increased by 1.»

I really wondered if there was a way to turn that particular notice off.

"Good." My dad ruffled my hair. "Be safe, Taylor." He headed out the door and paused before leaving. "Oh, and don't forget to do the dishes."

«New Quest Alert: Do the dishes»  
«Clean all the dirty dishes in the kitchen.»  
«Reward: 50 XP, Increased Reputation with Danny Hebert, [Dishwashing] skill.»  
«Failure: Decreased Reputation with Danny Hebert, dirty dishes.»  
«Accept?»  
«Yes» «No»

Argh. "«No,» I won't forget!" That wasn't entirely a lie. I wouldn't forget. I'd just make James do them.

With my father gone I had a little bit of time to kill before James was supposed to arrive. I considered «Cooking» us some meals, but while I now knew dozens of vegetarian meals I lacked the ingredients to make most of them. I wasn't going to repeat myself and make spaghetti and a salad again, which left few choices. Lisa probably wouldn't approve of PB&J sandwiches. If not «Cooking», then what? Of the choices available to me «Alchemy» appealed to me the most since it stated I could make potions, but all the alchemical formula I had were simple chemistry experiments. I didn't have the ingredients or equipment for most of them.

I decided to pack up to meet Parian first. I had yards of golden silk cloth that I'd woven to give to Parian. I had enough to mostly pay her what I owed her, but not enough to pay for a replacement cape, not to mention costumes for James and Lisa. My spiders had completed some more skirt-nets and my first silk rope. It was a lot lighter than the rope we'd bought last night and should be stronger as well. I added four cold light sticks to my utility belt. Of all the things on my belt, they'd been used the most. I also grabbed my hero journal. It had some costume sketches that might work for Lisa. I'd just finished storing everything away when my bugs noticed someone had just popped out of nowhere in my side yard – James was here.

I met him at the door pulling it open as he tried to knock. "Morning partner." We were still partners right? Even if Lisa's plan might split us up.

James quirked an eyebrow at me before replying, "Good mornin', pardner." He managed a half-way decent Western drawl. "You ready to hitch up the horses and go?"

I stepped away from the door and gestured at James to come in. "Actually, would you mind too much doing my dishes? Dad asked me to do them, but..."

"You don't want to waste a skill slot." James laughed. "I get it. I don't mind training up the skill. But you do owe me a favor if I'm doing your chores."

Oh? "What kind of favor?" I'd reached the kitchen and started gathering dishes and placing them by the sink. I could do that much to help at least.

James stepped right up and started washing dishes. "I was hoping I could use your basement. Completing the «Join a Team!» quest gave me a [Secret Base Key]. I'm supposed to use it somewhere secure to make a portal to some kind of Illusion Barrier. I figure your basement is the best option we have right now."

I shrugged. "Okay, but why my basement?"

"I might not be able to move it later. With «ID Create», I can easily sneak in and out of your house, but you don't have that option. Also your dad knows you have powers, and you've got an army of black widow spiders in here. Can you think of a more 'secure' location?"

I laughed. "You have a point. You can use my basement as soon as the dishes are done." Was it creepy that James planned to sneak into my house? I couldn't throw stones. I had bugs monitoring every house in a two block radius.

He gave me a mock salute. "Yes ma'am."

Since he was still washing dishes I decided to make small talk. "So my father was pissed. I'm supposed to call in frequently to him and report and I had to write an essay." I shrugged. I suppose in hindsight it could have been worse. "Did you get into any trouble with your parents?"

James stiffened and paused washing dishes, then continued. He scrubbed out the skillet before he replied. "Mom was upset. Told me I'm grounded and have to go to her work after school. I told Lisa about it online earlier."

Lisa? "Okay." Why her and not me?

With a flourish he set the last plate in the drying rack. "All done. Let's see what this key does."

"Okay." Sure. "This way, I guess." I'd been having my spiders finish up since James arrived and only a few hundred of them were still weaving. "So, this is my basement."

"Where'd all the little guys go? «Inventory.»" He reached in and pulled out a large wooden key. "So how does this thing work?" He gestured in the air turning the key as if in an invisible lock.

Suddenly a loud grinding noise filled the basement. The noise grew and ebbed several times like some kind of overstressed machine on its last legs. As loud as the sound was it was hard to pinpoint an exact source, but it sounded like it was coming from the place James had twisted the key. Suddenly the noise stopped and in its place a large upright refrigerator appeared, or maybe it was a freezer since it only had one door. The refrigerator was a dingy white and it was aged in appearance. To tell the truth, it looked like it belonged in my basement. If we had owned a freezer, it would probably be something like this, a few years old and well-used.

"No fucking way!" James sounded very excited about our new refrigerator.

"You expected this to happen?" Was I missing something? I'd expected a portal, not an appliance.

James's earlier glum mood was totally gone. "If I'm right, you'll see." He opened the door. Beyond the door was a large circular room that was well-lit despite having no obvious source of light. It looked empty except for a lectern standing in the middle of the room. James stepped right through the door into the room without hesitating. "Well, come on, then."

Wasn't there a rule about never shutting yourself into a refrigerator? Carpe diem. I stepped on through.


	47. Cut Scene 4-b PHO

This chapter was authored by Faria Lyton as a part of Co-Op Mode. Some posts were suggested by: Necoc Yaotl, ReaderDreamer5625, Datcord and myself. This chapter is reposted as part of A Bug in the Game with permission.

* * *

 **Cut Scene 4.b (PHO)**  
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■  
 **Topic: Lung Captured?!  
In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America**

 **Bagrat** (Original Poster)  
Posted on April 11, 2011:

HUGE news from Brockton Bay. The unstoppable rage dragon, Lung, has finally been defeated. Earlier this morning, the leader of the ABB was delivered to the PRT by Armsmaster. No official word has been released on how he managed this extordinary feat.

EDIT: Cell phone videos show that Lung was defeated (TWICE!) by what appears to be a small group of new capes, with Armsmaster taking custody.

Links to original video: 1, 2, 3  
Link to computer enhanced video on News 7 site: here

Tentative descriptions follow:

Golden Knight - armored figure wielding a baseball bat. Brute enough to knock out Lung, possibly the Master controlling the insects that swarmed him. Unverified reports hold that Golden Knight's actual cape name is Lady Bug.

Mantis - big helmet, dark outfit. Also a Brute of some kind, survived taking some serious hits from Lung before collapsing after Armsmaster showed up. Probably the team Master, given more insect-themed costume. Same unverified source calls him Beetle Knight.

Mysterious Stranger - dark female figure briefly approached the Brutes between the two fights. Suspected Stranger support.

EDIT 2: The PRT has issued a statement confirming that two new capes were 'involved' in the capture of Lung. No word on names, powers, or Mysterious Stranger.

 **(Showing Page 7 of 96)**

 **► DubStepAerobics**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Hey, guys! I got REALLY lucky and managed to get some halfway decent video of part of the fight! And, because I gotta be me, I happened to set it to a kickin' little beat!

EDIT: Holy shit! Okay, re-upped WITHOUT the accidental flash of my apartment number and street! Thanks, Tin_Mother!

 **► White_Lightning** (Temp-banned)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
[Take some time while you're banned to read the rules on what language is appropriate for this forum. Pay close attention to the parts on "racial slurs."] - Tin_Mother

 **► AllaBoutBass** (Temp-banned)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
[We don't allow death threats, either. Your IP has been reported to the authorities, per our forum guidelines.] - Tin_Mother

 **► Tin_Mother** (Moderator)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
DubStepAerobics - For now, I've disabled the links to both of your videos. Please go through and edit out some of the more personally identifying portions, for your own safety.

 **► March-Sister**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
I met them! Their actual cape names are Lady Bug and Beetle Knight. Lady Bug was really nice. She gave me the details. They didn't plan on fighting Lung. They were just doing some recon, but Lung started talking about killing kids. They couldn't let that slide and attacked. Best of all I got her #1 autograph. I'm hanging on to that. It's going to be worth a lot someday, but don't know that I'd ever sell it.

 **► Kool-Aid**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
MORE DETAILS!

 **► Loofa**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Agreed more details! And a scan of the sig!

 **► As-A-Shade-of-Purple-Gray**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Are you PRT? Is this an official statement? If not when did you meat?

 **► Soundstepper** (Verified Cape) (L.A. Protectorate)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Dub: I gotta admit, I really like how you managed to work the noise of the bat hitting Lung's face and knocking his ass out throughout the entire song. PM sent with contact info for our licensing guys. I WANT this song!  
 **  
► FoRuMNiNjAz**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Whoa, DubStepAerobics, that's some good footage you have there. Comparatively at least - it could be a lot better, but compared to the grainy videos we have here we can at least recognize some details in this video. I think this would us finally pin down something more specific about these two new capes that have somehow defeated Lung.  
 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ... 94 , 95, 96**

 **(Showing Page 8 of 96)**

 **► Fibonacci112358**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
What I want to know is why Mantis collapsed like that after the fight was over. And that's some hostile body language going on between Golden Knight and Armsmaster. Then... nothing. Don't get it.

 **► Verifying Verifier** (Unverified Verifier)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
March-Sister - where'd you go? Pics or it didn't happen.

EDIT: Yeah, she's full of it. Ignore her.

 **► BrowncoatGreeneyes**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Why is anyone in doubt that Mysterious Stranger is a Stranger? Did you watch the videos? First fight, nobody near Lung and then DFO = Done Fell Over. Something or rather someone happened. Later on Mantis, same thing. Just standing there then DFO.

The real question is why Mysterious Stranger first helped with Lung and then attacked Mantis.

 **► HereComesTheFudge**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
So, let's talk ratings.  
Golden Knight: Brute 7 (KO'd Lung, Nuff' said), Tinker 4 (That armor didn't burn)  
Mantis: Brute 6 (He went toe-to-toe with Lung), Thinker ? (I'm thinking he's reacting just a little too fast, Jedi reflexes maybe?)  
Mysterious Stranger: Stranger 7 (Took down Lung and no visual)

 **► Toil-N-Trouble**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
HCtF - don't you think it is a little early to discuss ratings? We don't even have their names yet. Plus way too high. Sure Lung gets tough, but he wasn't that big in this fight. You need to scale things down a lot.

 **► A-Certain-Something**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
What happened to the ABB? I don't mean Lung, he was obviously there, but the reports started with gunshots before the rage dragon did his thing. Did they just clear out or what?

 **► FoxyLoxy**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Are you kidding? It was a cape fight. Of course the ABB ran.

 **► ParanoidinBrocktonBay**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
March-Sister Wait, they didn't plan on fighting Lung, they just stumbled into it? That's pretty unbelievable, especially for new capes. Maybe they are rebrands or have some prior combat training.

 **► Green &Red**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
There are going to be consequences. Just saying.

 **► White &Nerdy**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
You ABBers always say stuff like that. And this time you don't have Lung to use as a threat any more. Go wank off to some pedo cartoons.  
 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... 94 , 95, 96**

 **(Showing Page 9 of 96)**

 **► XxVoid CowboyxX**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
I've watched all the videos and I call BULLSHIT. This is Lung we're talking about. He soloed Leviathan. There is no way he was taken down by a bat to the head. Plus insect control? Get real. (1) There are no sign of insect control anywhere on those videos. Where did that rumor even get started. (2) What kind of lame ass power is insect control anyway? Maybe that Mysterious Stranger is some kind of bug controller which is why she has to hide, because a few little bug bites ain't gonna stop Lung.

 **► FoxyLoxy**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
These guys aren't newbies. Trust me. I know martial arts. That first fight with Lung where Golden Knight does a textbook perfect throw and Mantis slams Lung down to the ground - that wasn't accidental. That doesn't happen overnight. You don't get that kind of skill without years of practice. You don't get that kind of coordination without training together.

And yeah, yeah, there are powers that let capes do that. Uber and Victor and Can-Do, but the odds of having two capes like that, both newbies suddenly appearing. Nope. Not buying it. GK & M at least have a history. I think they did a rebrand.

 **► Oliphaunt**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
While I'm pretty impressed with the major league batting of Golden Knight, I have to say bah to the costume. He's a Scion copycat. Still, he put Lung in a hogtie! Here's hoping he joins the Protectorate and gets a costume overhaul. He needs something more badass.

 **► NCC-1701**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
I really, really, really, hate to say it, but Void Cowboy. Something is fishy. Why hasn't the PRT released the names of the heroes yet. We saw 'Golden Knight' talking to Armsmaster. It just doesn't add up. Maybe they are ex-villains that rebranded. Could they be... Uber and Leet? Uber could pull of the bat and martial skills. Leet might be doing something with the helmet.

 **► L33t** (Verified Cape)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
It wasn't us. I wish it was us. Damn that was sweet and they could have totally done a Mortal Kombat theme for that fight. If it had been us, there would have been high quality video of the fight front to end. Also we are NEVER giving up our crusade to bring the wonder of videogames to the world.

 **► Uber** (Verified Cape)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Not to disparage the new guys, but their technique is a little sloppy. I'd say GK is about 5th, maybe 4th (orange or green belt) kyu in Aikido. Mantis is using Jeet Kune Do, which doesn't do belts, but I'd say he's got about the same level of expertise.

 **► Hax** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Hey, Uber, can you really master ANY skill in only a matter of minutes? Care to demonstrate onto me?

 **► Loofa**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Are you REALLY going to post that EVERY time Uber posts?

 **► Hax** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
At least until he says yes! And probably after...

 **► FoRuMNiNjAz**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
*facepalm* And this is why Uber posts so rarely, isn't it?  
 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ... 94 , 95, 96**

 **(Showing Page 96 of 96)**

 **► XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied on April 12, 2011:  
Why is everyone so sure Golden Knight and Mantis are guys? Some girls just don't have that much shape to them. This one girl I know has almost the exact same figure as Mantis.

 **► Tin_Mother** (Moderator)  
Replied on April 12, 2011:  
XxVoid_CowboyxX You're toeing the line there. No speculating on the identity of parahumans.

 **► ThreeDs**  
Replied on April 12, 2011:  
SpecificProtagonist - I'd say Golden Knight & Mantis R the lucky ones. MysteriousStranger had plenty to go around.

 **► GstringGirl**  
Replied on April 12, 2011:  
As fuzzy as those pictures are, it's really too hard to tell. Golden Knight has full body armor. Maybe he's a case 53.

 **► Ekul**  
Replied on April 12, 2011:  
There's a thread for discussing the new heroes here. This thread is for discussing Lung's capture. How do you think the ABB will fare without their heavy hitter?

 **► CarnationKenshin** (Temp-banned)  
Replied on April 12, 2011:  
You losers better hope Lung gets out on his own or they let him go. Nothing will keep Oni Lee from his lover. Clone teleportation suicide bombings were already unstoppable and now they're got Bakuda making bombs for them. Did you see what she did to Cornell? Brockton Bay is going to burn.

[Tin_Mother: You've been warned before about making threats. Enjoy your ban.]

 **► XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied on April 12, 2011:

What are you talking about? I just said their figures were similar.  
 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 94 , 95, 96**

■  
 **Topic: Golden Knight and Mantis  
In: Boards ► Heroes ► America ► New England**

 **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (The Guy In The Know) (Veteran Member)  
Posted on April 11, 2011:

Here's the thread for discussing news, rumors, and gossip about the new heroes tentatively identified as Golden Knight and Mantis.

Golden Knight wears medieval-styled gold armor over a white bodysuit and wields what looks like an aluminium baseball bat. Speculated to be a mid- to high-level Brute based on knocking Lung out (see video here) and an anthrokinetic Master.

EDIT: In one video it appears that Golden Knight has a red belt buckle. Significance unknown.

Mantis wears a large helmet with bug-like eyes. Initially wore a black outfit with brown plates of armor, but that was destroyed fighting Lung. Managed to change into a green shirt and blue jeans before passing out. Speculated to be a mid-level Brute for surviving several direct hits from Lung.

EDIT: Probably male, shown topless in a few of the videos.

Mysterious Stranger wears a dark, tight outfit. Female. Speculated to be a Stranger. Of course, EVERYONE is speculated to be a Stranger and/or Master at some point.

EDIT: Not mentioned in the press release about Lung's defeat. Considered by some to be confirmation of Stranger rating.

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 **► ParanoidinBrocktonBay**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
That's pretty damn awesome! Not everyday you get to see Lung beat to shit by fists, kicks and a bat. How'd that bat survive?

For new capes they look like they've been preparing for this for months, years even. You don't pull of kung-fu shit like that after your first day at the dojo, so props them them. Most new capes just show up half-assed after finding out they've got powers the day before.

 **► PurpleMagicWoman**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
ParanoidinBrocktonBay In the Lung thread someone said that they do look like they've been fighting together for a long time, but I don't think they're rebranded capes. If they were you'd think Mantis could afford a good costume.

I know the videos aren't highest quality, but Golden Knight is totes a chick tho. Long hair and fem armor.

 **► Miss_Charms**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
So not being mentioned in a press release means you're a Stranger now? What, was that bear a Stranger too?

 **► LetTheWriteOneIn**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
PurpleMagicWoman: I, for one, feel like someone needs to speak up for all the guys with long hair who just want to feel pretty in their armor... Also, we'd better all hope Mantis is a guy or else we're all in DEEP trouble after watching that video, you know what I mean? (Given that the link's still up and Tin_Mother's been in here, I think that answers THAT pretty solidly.)

 **► XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
MissCharms: There wasn't a bear in that video...

:TTWOI: The only video with good enough picture to matter only shows Mantis from behind while shirtless.

 **► CaptainCaveIn** (Verified Spelunker)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
. - The joke

. - The Moon

. - Void Cowboy.

 **► PurpleMagicWoman**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
LTWOI: I can't help but feel you're biased in that regard, given certain stories you've written...

 **► LetTheWriteOneIn**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
PurpleMagicWoman: Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea culpa maxima! I just wrote a new chapter for Arms"Master"?, too! In it, Armsmaster has an encounter with a pair of new capes, who discover something unusual! Now, however will she convince them to keep her secret?

 **► SpecificProtagonist**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
I don't see it?

 **► Assail**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
WriteOne You know, one day Armsie's gonna see that story and hutn you down. Dude's got zero sense of humor.  
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 **(Showing Page 27 of 27)**

 **► LetTheWriteOneIn**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Specific: It's not in the thread here on PHO for the story, due to *cough* content. It's on That Other Forum. Oh! I still owe you that SI snippet over there in the 'Wet Nightmares' thread! Don't let me forget to get that for you!

Assail: And I will ask HER to sign my casts when she does!

 **► Miss_Charms**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:

This always happens when LetTheWriteOneIn shows up in threads. Why don't you just stay in the other forum?

 **► ParanoidinBrocktonBay**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
The press release just said they were "involved" in Lung's capture. But the video shows just Golden Knight and Mantis fighting Lung. That seems more than just "involved" to me. Armsmaster doesn't even show up until Lung is out.  
EDIT: Also, are we sure that Mysterious Stranger was doing anything? Maybe she's just an informant, or she hired them to fight Lung.

DOUBLE EDIT: Where'd the name Lady Bug come from?

 **► Miss_Charms**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Thank God, someone who is staying on topic. ParanoidinBrocktonBay Maybe they were working with the PRT or Wards (?) or they're foreign capes in some sort of sting? None of the videos show the beginning of the fight, maybe Lung had been fighting Armsmaster before he ran into these two?

 **► FollowTheLeader**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
Paranoid - Don't know if it matters, but there IS a "Lady_Bug" registered here. Account's not new, either. Could be related, could be someone trying to steal free publicity. (I think we all remember the 'Night Stalker Incident', right?)

 **► Vaultdweller**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
FollowTheLeader - Hey there is an Earth-Aleph cartoon Miraculous Ladybug (link) with a cape called Ladybug. Maybe it's related?

 **► XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
WTF did I just watch?! What does a cute girl in a red costume with black spots prancing around Paris possibly have to do with Golden Knight? Golden Knight is a BAMF. Never post that link again!

 **► LeChatNoir** (Verified Cape)  
Replied on April 11, 2011:  
VaultDweller - Thanks. Thanks a lot. Now all my teammates are giving me crap about 'robbing the cradle.' Does anybody know how to sue someone in another dimension? I had this name FIRST!  
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